Safeguarding sensitive information is paramount in today’s business world, and SAP systems, integral to many organizations, stand as attractive targets for potential security breaches.
This article delves into SAP Security breaches, addressing the escalating threats and the critical need for robust protective measures, especially as enterprise organizations expand their reach and manage customer data worldwide. As businesses increasingly rely on SAP applications for their core processes, understanding the vulnerabilities and potential consequences of security breaches becomes imperative.
In the face of evolving cybersecurity challenges, this article aims to equip organizations with the knowledge and tools needed to fortify their SAP landscapes and navigate the complex terrain of cybersecurity with resilience and vigilance.
Living in a World of Increased Cyber Attacks
In today’s modern, cloud-dominant technical landscape, cyber attackers are becoming an increasingly dangerous threat, making changes to enterprise systems that disrupt daily operations and put confidential data in the wrong hands.
To protect vulnerable SAP systems and their sensitive data from unauthorized access, SAP has outlined a breach and incident management solution that enables organizations to create proactive plans to identify threats, build resilient SAP environments, and recover quickly from any unpredicted attacks.
With SAP’s strategic security solution, users in small, mid-size, and large enterprise organizations can ensure their most sensitive information is protected from malice and that employees are notified as soon as a potential breach is detected.
Understanding the Definition and Scope of a Breach
In terms of the SAP Security landscape, an information security event refers to an identified occurrence of a service, system, or network state that indicates a potential breach of data security policy, failure of proper controls, or a previously unknown situation with possible security relevance.
An SAP breach involves the confirmed occurrence of at least one of the following scenarios:
- Loss of data
- Alteration of data
- Misuse of data
- Accidental/unlawful destruction of data
- Unauthorized disclosure or access to data
Breach notification and incident management features are typically relevant for cloud transformation services from SAP, except in the case of on-premise SAP systems and private customer clouds operated and managed by customers or customer-subscribed cloud infrastructure.
Protecting Sensitive Data from Security Breaches
Here are a few examples of how SAP protects customer data from potential breaches or cyber attacks:
Threat and risk assessment
SAP leverages a risk-based methodology supporting planning, mitigation, and countermeasures to prevent SAP Security breaches and protect customer data from unauthorized access. With intelligent threat and risk assessment, customers can proactively address threats and understanding their potential impact on critical business operations.
Governance
SAP Security guidelines leverage industry standards, like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), U.S. National Institute of Standards of Technology (NIST), and others, to build a robust security governance policy and ensure customer data is protected.
Cyber defense
By monitoring SAP system operations and alerting users of potential vulnerabilities and suspicious activities, SAP enables companies to build a defense strategy that meets their needs and protects their most critical information from data theft or change.
Organizations can also conduct routine security scans of external Web infrastructure, run third-party penetration tests, and leverage red team testing capabilities to ensure proper data security.
Global security
SAP industry guidelines are built on the premise of protecting both physical assets and customer data. Intelligent security programs enable organizations to manage employee safety, protect critical operations, and scale their security efforts to meet evolving needs over time.
Business resilience
Based on a foundation of resiliency, SAP Security adapts to threats against critical operations, stakeholders, and overall company reputation, further reducing system vulnerability and improving SAP application security across the board.
Setting Up Personalized Breach Notifications
SAP customers can set up and register for incident notifications through the SAP ONE Support Launchpad, ensuring their critical SAP systems are protected, and any data breaches are identified and addressed promptly.
Users must have a valid S-user ID to access the SAP ONE Support Launchpad, register a resource for contact during a data breach, and set up personalized notifications to be sent to a specific S-user ID or SAP Universal ID.
With automated analysis and notifications for breaches, SAP users can also access information about:
- Reporting obligations and guidelines
- User notification frameworks
- Which employees are allowed to report an incident
- Timeline for discovering and declaring an incident
- Steps in the Security Incident Response Lifecycle
Navigating SAP Applications for Improved Security
Data Protection and Privacy
- Data Custodian: Leverage tokenization, data transparency, and other critical data management services to control data directly in the cloud.
- UI Data Protection: Monitor and update access to sensitive data over time to improve protection and support key data protection and privacy requirements through an easy-to-use ERP add-on.
- Privacy Governance: Operationalize privacy management initiatives to simplify privacy compliance on a cloud-based platform.
- Data Privacy Integration: Facilitate better data processing, purpose management, retrieval, and deletion through enhanced privacy compliance requirements.
Security Support and Community
- MaxAttention: Leverage rapid and professional guidance and support to improve adherence to to operational and security requirements.
- Security Community: Access a community to share customer stories, connect with global SAP Security provider experts, and stay up-to-date on the latest security trends.
- Security Optimization: Access a library of security information, configurations, authorizations, and and patches to protect user data.
- Security Webcasts: View webcasts that examine relevant security trends and topical aspects of the SAP system to stay up-to-date with evolving security regulations.
Identity and Access Management
- Cloud Identity Access Governance: Monitor access authorizations through the cloud, ensure segregation of duties, and reduce risk of data misuse, mistakes, and financial loss.
- Identity Management: Embed intelligent identity management objectives into existing business processes and centralize user access management in a unified platform.
- Cloud Identity Services: Leverage cloud-based user provisioning and authentication features to build, run, and manage intelligent integration and extension scenarios.
- Secure Login Service for SAP GUI: Provide both risk-based and multi-factor authentication services to enhance user experiences and improve security across SAP GUI applications.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance
- Risk Management: Enable risk-aware decisions and closely monitor the effectiveness of cybersecurity measures across teams and business units.
- Security Dashboard: Leverage risk scoring and quantification capabilities to combine security feeds and prioritize mitigations.
- Audit Management: Deliver comprehensive insights by aligning business processes with critical cyberrisks and improving the quality of their audits.
- Process Control: Simplify internal cybersecurity programs, automate core business processes, and facilitate better compliance management.
Security Configuration and Monitoring
- Enterprise Threat Detection: Identify, assess, and address cyberattacks in SAP applications as soon as they occur, preventing further damage to the system or the company’s reputation.
- Code Vulnerability Analyzer: Identify and resolve issues in ABAP programming language to prevent future exploitations or vulnerabilities.
- Early Watch Alert: Leverage a free, automated cloud service to identify and analyze essential areas of the SAP system that could be impacted by future SAP cyber attacks.
- Focused Run: Utilize a policy-based system and centralized access to monitor security configurations and risks across the entire ERP landscape.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help outlining a personalized security plan to protect your existing SAP system, additional support getting your team back on track after a breach occurs, or just an extra hand navigating ever-evolving security regulations, Surety Systems is here to help.
Our senior-level, US-based SAP consultant team has the knowledge, skills, and experience to help you mitigate the risk of security issues and protect your company’s reputation, regardless of the amount of data stored in your SAP system or the complexity of your technical landscape.
Getting Started with Our Team
Interested in learning how SAP Security settings can help address critical vulnerabilities throughout your customer data and mission-critical applications? Ready to get started on a project with our expert SAP technology consultant team?
Contact us today for more information!
