Sentaro watches that layer continuously, so you see unsanctioned apps and AI tools the moment they appear, not at the next audit, and the OAuth grants behind them stay reviewable and revocable.
Employees adopt new SaaS and AI tools every week. Free tiers leave no invoice for finance to catch, remote work means adoption never crosses the corporate network, and a single OAuth consent can hand a third party persistent access to mailboxes, calendars and files.
Network-based discovery misses everything adopted off-network. Expense-based discovery misses everything free. Annual audits capture a snapshot that is outdated the same week. Meanwhile attackers exploit the same blind spot with lookalike apps and consent phishing.
Every tool an employee adopts leaves a trail in the mailbox: a welcome email, a verification link, a receipt, or an OAuth consent against the tenant. Sentaro monitors those signals across all four vectors to build a live inventory of what is actually in use, on any device, on any network.
File-sharing services, project tools, and increasingly shadow AI in the form of chatbots, meeting notetakers and assistants. Because the trail already exists in mailbox data, Sentaro also surfaces historical adoption: tools employees signed up for long before you deployed anything, including abandoned accounts that still hold company data.
The riskiest shadow IT is not an app someone visits; it is an app someone connected. Sentaro surfaces every third-party grant with its scopes, so overly permissive access is visible, reviewable and revocable before it becomes the quiet backdoor nobody remembers approving.
Discovery alone tells you what already happened. Sentaro also stops the malicious half: attackers registering lookalike apps, often disguised as popular AI tools, and using consent phishing to trick employees into granting mailbox access. Because every message and app signal is already analyzed, those attempts are blocked in the same layer.
Departing employees keep access to every shadow tool IT never knew about, and the grants they approved keep working after the account is disabled. Because the inventory is built from the email and identity layer, you can review exactly which apps and grants are tied to a departing employee and close them out deliberately.
Discovery methods compared
| Network / CASB | Expense-based | SaaS management | Sentaro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-network and remote usage | Missed | Missed | Partial | Detected |
| Free-tier tools (no invoice) | Partial | Missed | Partial | Detected |
| OAuth grants and scopes | No | No | Some | Yes |
| Blocks consent phishing | No | No | No | Yes |
| Historical adoption trail | No | Partial | Partial | Yes, from existing mailbox data |
| Also stops phishing and BEC | No | No | No | Yes |
| Deployment | Appliances or proxies | Finance exports | Multiple integrations | API, four minutes |
CASBs and network tools only see traffic crossing infrastructure you control. Email-based discovery works regardless of device or network, and catches free-tier signups that never touch a firewall, a proxy or an invoice.
Yes. Signup and OAuth trails live in existing mailbox and workspace data, so historical adoption surfaces too, including tools employees signed up for long before deployment.
Yes. AI chatbots, meeting notetakers and OAuth-connected assistants are discovered and categorized like any other SaaS, and consent phishing disguised as AI apps is blocked automatically.
No. Legitimate tools are surfaced for review and you decide what to allow or revoke. Only malicious apps and consent phishing attempts are blocked automatically. Blocking legitimate productivity tools tends to push usage underground.
Yes. Each discovered app and grant is tied to the accounts that created it, so you can follow up with the right people instead of sending company-wide warnings.
Shadow IT discovery is part of the platform, not a separate module. Every plan includes it. See pricing.
A live inventory of every app, AI tool and OAuth grant, within 15 minutes of connecting.