The quick serve restaurant (QSR) industry is built on consistency and shared resources. National chains like McDonald’s and regional chains like Cracker Barrel are growing faster by reusing the same business model, decor and menus with little change between stores.
The QSR technology stack reflects the consistency of each store’s front end. Each franchise is independently owned and operated, yet shares subscriptions to SaaS applications or uses multiple tenants of the same application. Each app is typically segmented by store. Corporate IT and security have access to the entire database, while each franchise has its own data visibility.
These SaaS apps cover everything from CRM to supply chain to marketing to HR. Internal data is used to understand consumer habits, improve marketing campaigns, and manage employees. Like any other industry, QSR SaaS apps contain large amounts of data that need to be protected.
At the same time, the food chain is also under attack. It’s unclear if the recent breach at the fast food chain is related to his SaaS application, but what is clear is that threat actors are increasingly turning their attention to restaurant chains. QSR presents unique challenges and requires specific and significant security measures to be taken to protect SaaS applications.
Learn how to use SSPM to protect your entire SaaS stack
Franchising poses unique SaaS challenges
Like all companies, QSR must keep its data out of the hands of threat actors. Additionally, QSR has a secondary concern that most other companies don’t experience.
Burger King has about 7,000 franchises in the United States. These privately owned and operated restaurants often compete with each other. Different franchises may store data within the same SaaS application. However, the data is segmented so that stores cannot see the data of competitors within the chain.
Role-based access tools for corporate CISO teams to get a holistic view of applications, for regional management offices to access aggregated data within regions, and for individual franchises to segment data so they can only see data Requires a sensitive configuration using
Misconfiguration can easily leak data in the chain. System administrators should always monitor their configuration to prevent this from happening.
Securing multiple tenants of an application
In addition to sharing segmented applications, many QSRs use different tenants of the same application. Each tenant should be configured according to chain guidelines and secured separately.
Some stores have instances of highly secure applications, while others have a poor security posture. Ensuring that each branch office maintains strict security standards in this kind of environment is a very difficult task.
Identity and access governance is critical for QSR SaaS
Another unique challenge for QSR today stems from the fact that QSR is one of the key players impacted by COVID-19 and major resignations. Many restaurants have shortened hours, reverted to drive-thru only, or are operating with fewer staff to serve customers.
Staffing shortages mean more employees have access to systems that were previously controlled by administrators. The short-term work of employees is also a cause of the labor shortage. These employees are not “cyber trained” and are much more susceptible to social engineering attacks such as phishing. Additionally, they tend to be young and not always aware of the implications of sharing their login credentials with friends and social networks.
As a result, the onboarding and deprovisioning of thousands of chain employees around the world is more important than ever. Former employees should revoke access as soon as possible to limit the potential for data leaks, breaches, and other cyberattacks.
Protection from SaaS threats
To combat these unique challenges, Manage your SaaS security posture (SSPM) may appear. SSPM helps restaurants manage settings that segregate data by store. Also, by comparing different tenants, his CISO team at the company knows which stores, regions and countries have their applications protected and which have misconfigurations that could lead to data leaks or breaches. can do.
Additionally, SSPM alerts restaurants if they connect high-risk third-party apps to the core hub or if employees are using devices with poor hygiene to access SaaS applications. Manage users and access, ensure security tools like MFA are in place, and review user activity to detect threats that could lead to compromise.
If security settings are misconfigured, let app admins and security teams know when misconfigurations have allowed other stores to access data, and help reseal data walls between franchises. Provides helpful remediation guidelines.
With an effective SSPM tool in place, QSR can use a SaaS application to manage its restaurants with the confidence that their data is safe.
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