SSO/MFA First
Centralize identity and enforce MFA across cloud and SaaS
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security19 min read
Common Security Gaps in Fast-Growing Startups
The most frequent and costly security gaps seen in fast-growing startups—how to recognize them early, the real risks behind them, and pragmatic, AI-aware fixes you can implement without stalling delivery.
By Security Engineering Team
Summary
Speed and security are not enemies—but certain patterns turn velocity into avoidable risk. This guide calls out the most frequent gaps we see in scaling startups, how they show up in the day-to-day, and lightweight, high-leverage fixes that improve trust without slowing delivery.
Top Security Gaps, Signals, and Fast Fixes
| Gap | Observable Signals | Risk | Fast, Pragmatic Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| No SSO/MFA for workforce apps | Local logins; shared admin accounts; ad hoc offboarding | Account takeover; audit failure; contractor sprawl | Enforce SSO + MFA across cloud and SaaS; disable local accounts; automate deprovisioning |
| Over-privileged IAM and no access reviews | Humans with admin in prod; stale service accounts | Large blast radius; insider risk; accidental changes | Role-based least privilege; quarterly access reviews; break-glass flow with audit |
| Secrets in repos or configs | Manual .env sharing; no secret rotation; CI logs with tokens | Credential theft; lateral movement | Managed secrets store; enable repo secret scanning; rotate exposed keys; restrict CI logs |
| No centralized logging and alerting | SSH into boxes to troubleshoot; missing audit trail | Slow detection; no evidence for audits/incidents | Ship logs to a central sink; retain 90-180 days; alert on auth failures and privilege changes |
| Backups exist but restores untested | Backups 'green' but no drill; unknown RTO/RPO | Data loss; prolonged outages; ransom leverage | Monthly restore drill; document RTO/RPO; automate verification |
| PII flows unmapped; no data retention | Unknown data locations; CSVs in object storage; stale PII | Privacy violations; breach scope expansion | Create a data map; tag PII; enforce retention/deletion jobs; mask prod data in lower envs |
| Staging uses production data | Support fixes with real customer data in test | Unauthorized PII exposure; dev laptop risk | Synthetic datasets or irreversible tokenization; strict access controls; redact exports |
| Vulnerability management by best effort | Aging CVEs; skipped patch windows; no owner | Known exploit exposure; compliance gaps | Severity-based SLAs; weekly reporting; auto-patch for low-risk updates |
| Change policy is ad hoc; no safe rollback | Hotfixes to prod; large PRs; no flags/canaries | Incident frequency; long MTTR | Adopt flags; canary high-risk changes; scripted rollback; define change windows |
| Vendor risk unmanaged (no DPAs or exit plans) | Unknown subprocessors; shadow tools; single-vendor AI | Contractual breach; lock-in; data residency issues | Vendor inventory + tiering; DPAs; SLA/uptime terms; export/exit clauses; dual-source where critical |
| AI/LLM safety absent (PII, no evals/budgets) | Prompts contain PII; no prompt logs; cost spikes | Leakage; hallucinations; runaway token spend | Prompt/output logging with redaction; evaluation suite; token budgets/alerts; model/version registry |
| No incident response runbooks or tabletop | Confusion in outages; Slack-only 'process' | Delayed containment; repeated mistakes | Define roles (IC, Comms, Scribe); run a 60-minute tabletop; template postmortems |
High-Leverage Fixes That Don't Kill Velocity
Paved Roads for Changes
Standardize flags, canaries, and rollback scripts
- Lower incident rate
- Shorter MTTR
- Predictable releases
Evidence by Default
Central logs, access reviews, vuln SLAs—all with owners
- Compliance-ready
- Fewer fire drills
- Clear accountability
Data Map + Retention
Make PII locations, flows, and deletion schedules explicit
- Smaller breach scope
- GDPR/SOC2 readiness
- Lower storage risk
AI Guardrails 'On'
Eval suites, prompt logging with redaction, token budgets
- Quality you can trust
- Spend control
- Safer iteration
Vendor Tiering
Inventory vendors, set SLAs/DPAs, and plan exits
- Reduced lock-in
- Contract clarity
- Resilience
Program Metrics & KPIs
| KPI | Target/Threshold | How to Measure | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-merge Security Catch Rate | Up (pre-merge), Down (post-merge Sev-1/2) | SAST/secret scan reports vs incident tracker | Monthly |
| Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) | ≤ 15 minutes for Sev-1; ≤ 60 minutes for Sev-2 | Alert timestamps to incident creation | Monthly |
| Mean Time to Restore (MTTR) | ≤ 1 hour (Sev-2); ≤ 4 hours (Sev-1) | Incident start/end timestamps | Monthly |
| Critical Vulnerabilities Past Due | Zero > 30 days | Vuln management reports by severity and age | Weekly |
| Access Review Completion | ≥ 95% of systems quarterly | Access review attestations; exception log | Quarterly |
| Backup Restore Drill Pass | 100% monthly | Restore drill results with RTO/RPO evidence | Monthly |
| Vendor DPA Coverage | 100% for in-scope vendors | Vendor inventory with DPA flag | Quarterly |
| AI Evaluation Coverage | 100% high-risk prompts/models have evals | Eval suite results linked to model registry | Monthly |
30-Day Triage Plan to Close the Biggest Gaps
Reduce risk fast while preserving delivery
Days 0-7: Identity, Secrets, Logging
Enforce SSO/MFA; put human/admin access behind roles; enable repo secret scanning; centralize logs
- SSO/MFA enforced
- Secret scanning live; rotation plan started
- Centralized logging operational
Days 8-14: Change Safety and Backups
Adopt feature flags; add canary + rollback scripts; run first backup restore drill; define RTO/RPO
- Flags/canary/rollback doc
- Restore report with timings
- RTO/RPO documented
Days 15-21: Data Map and Vendor Tiering
Map PII and flows; implement retention for a high-risk dataset; inventory vendors; attach DPAs
- Data map v1 and retention job
- Vendor register with tiers/DPAs
- Exit terms for critical vendors
Days 22-30: AI Guardrails and Incident Readiness
Enable prompt/output logging with redaction; set token budgets + alerts; create incident runbooks and run a tabletop
- AI eval + guardrail baseline
- Tabletop report and action items
- Incident runbooks completed
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Deferred SSO/MFA
Putting off identity management until 'later' creates massive technical debt
- Prevents credential sprawl
- Reduces attack surface
- Simplifies compliance
Copy-Paste Policies
Adopting policies without evidence trails and actual implementation
- Real security outcomes
- Audit readiness
- Measurable progress
PII in AI Prompts
Putting customer data into prompts without redaction or retention controls
- Privacy protection
- Regulatory compliance
- Customer trust
Single Vendor AI Dependency
Relying on one AI vendor without evaluation parity or exit plan
- Vendor resilience
- Cost optimization
- Flexible architecture
Theoretical Backups
Having backups but never testing restores or knowing RTO/RPO
- Real disaster recovery
- Business continuity
- Ransomware protection
Skipped Postmortems
Not learning from incidents or tracking improvement actions
- Continuous improvement
- Reduced repeat incidents
- Team learning
Implementation Checklist
- SSO + MFA enforced across cloud and SaaS; local accounts disabled
- Least-privilege IAM with quarterly access reviews and break-glass flow
- Secrets manager in place; repo secret scanning enabled; exposed keys rotated
- Centralized logging with 90-180 day retention and key alerts
- Backups verified via monthly restore drill; RTO/RPO documented
- PII data map completed; retention and deletion jobs implemented
- Lower environments scrubbed or tokenized; no raw prod PII
- Vulnerability SLAs defined and reported weekly
- Change policy with flags, canaries, and automated rollback
- Vendor inventory with DPAs, SLAs, and exit/export clauses
- AI eval suite, prompt/output logging with redaction, token budgets/alerts
- Incident runbooks, roles, comms template; quarterly tabletop scheduled
Prerequisites
- Named security owner and control owners across Engineering/IT/Data
- Basic inventory of systems, data stores, and critical vendors
- Access to cloud IAM, logging, CI/CD, and backup configurations
- Awareness of any AI/LLM features, providers, and data flows
References & Sources
- NIST SP 800-61 Rev.2— Computer Security Incident Handling Guide for incident response best practices
- CIS Controls v8— Foundational security safeguards and implementation guidance
- OWASP Application Security Verification Standard— Security verification standards for application development
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework— AI governance and safety guidelines for responsible AI implementation
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