Top 3 Key Success Factors for SAP Security
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Recent regulations, like NIST in the USA and NIS-2 in Europe, along with frequent weekly reports about enterprise data breaches, have established an increasing awareness on the executive level about the importance of cybersecurity. The ability to respond effectively and quickly to threats is as important as the continuous improvement of the cybersecurity posture across all technical layers, from the network to the application level.
However, implementing a mature cybersecurity process remains a challenge for many companies. The complexity of the IT landscape, the specific security aspects of each technology layer, and the difficulty of creating a 360° security view for SOC teams are some of the key topics that cybersecurity organizations are struggling with.
Securing and protecting the core business application like SAP often feels like navigating a bumpy road. This is because the implemented SAP Security is either not effective enough, like a simple integration of SAP Audit log into SIEM, or the SAP Security team is overloaded with the comprehensive backlog and struggles to complete the tasks.
After talking to many of our customers over the years, I’ve identified 3 key success factors for developing an efficient and mature SAP Security approach.
C-level Commitment and Organization Empowerment
It is imperative for CEOs to adopt a strong commitment to cyber security and cyber resilience. This is evident in recent articles from organizations like BCG, Accenture, and the announcement from the World Economic Forum. It starts with a clear understanding of the business impact of risks associated with digital processes and supply chains and cumulates in long-term and strategic empowerment of the IT organization to mitigate those risks. Cybersecurity teams need reliable budgets and resources to establish best practices for IT security.
While it is clear that CEOs will not dive into the technical details, using real-life analogies can help create the necessary awareness of cybersecurity. Most CEOs might have experienced the multi-layered security of a headquarters facility, with a fence around the building, a gatekeeper at the entrance, and multiple access controls inside the office. This highlights the importance of access control in overall system security.
IT Security operates in a similar way. Firewalls act as the “fence” around the entire IT environment, SOC teams monitor user and system activities, and each system or application comes with its own security and access controls.
SAP landscapes are no different, but due to their complexity, they create an environment of their own. Although they are sometimes protected by a firewall, SAP systems are often connected to the internet and use proprietary communication protocols and APIs that are difficult to secure without specific expertise. CEOs must not make the mistake of assuming that the firewall alone can protect SAP systems without additional security measures. SAP systems are at the core of their business and therefore need special measures to protect them.
CEOs should be aware that additional budget and resources are required for establishing SAP Security on top of existing IT infrastructure security. Quite often, the SAP Basis team is empowered with additional dedicated security administrators, while large organizations often establish a separate SAP Security department to support the SAP Basis team.
In both cases, it is important to allocate sufficient long-term budgets for ongoing operations and specialized tools needed for running the processes efficiently. SAP Security solutions, like the SecurityBridge Platform, provide teams with specialized knowledge to scale effectively, avoiding costly and cumbersome manual tasks.
SAP Security Improvements in Every SAP Change
After kick-starting the SAP Security project and scanning the SAP landscape for the first time, SAP administrators will find quite an extensive list of recommendations for hardening their systems. Even with a Security Roadmap that provides the most efficient path to a mature SAP Security posture, it usually takes organizations considerable time to implement these recommendations.
Hardening the system involves changing the system’s security configurations or parameters, implementing necessary SAP Security Notes or patches, and addressing vulnerabilities in the ABAP custom code. Additionally, managing SAP authorizations is crucial for maintaining security by ensuring user accounts are secured through roles that grant specific authorizations. This has an inevitable impact on other projects and application developments that need to be minimized when hardening the system.
It is important that SAP Security teams initially gain detailed visibility into the security gaps of their landscape, so they can start clustering the activities according to the Security Roadmap. Vulnerabilities with a high exploitation risk but a low-resolution complexity should be mitigated first. This allows the security team to show quick results and gain the trust of the other SAP teams.
Moving forward, it is crucial to identify planned maintenance windows and change projects that also allow security changes to be part of the scheduled activities. The mandatory testing phase at the end of the project can be used for both the project and hardening deliverables. However, project managers will only allow SAP Security teams to include their change in the project if they are confident that the impact is minimal and under control. Therefore, SAP Security teams need a clear understanding of the nature of system hardening, full transparency on the tasks needed to mitigate the vulnerabilities in their SAP landscape, and an agile approach to execute them.
Cross-department Synergies and Benefits
Regardless of the size of the SAP landscape, SAP Security is never a one-time project or a one-man show. After the initial kick-start and the first few months following the Security Roadmap, it is imperative for SAP Security administrators to establish good collaboration processes with other departments that share similar responsibilities and goals.
SOC teams, for example, are eager to consume the SAP Security Audit Logs in their SIEM solution to gain a 360° view. Risk Management and Compliance departments seek transparency within the SAP domain by leveraging security audit reports to include them in their assessments. Additionally, SAP custom development teams benefit from the valuable input provided by ABAP code security scans, which can be included in their ABAP development workbench to provide application security by design.
By allowing other departments to access their SAP Security solutions and consume their data, SAP administrators extend the benefits of security across the organization. This strengthens collaboration with other teams and distributes the workload, ultimately improving the overall SAP Security posture.
Conclusion
SAP Security requires a committed C-level and a top-down approach to ensure that the cybersecurity team is equipped with the necessary resources and support. Additionally, SAP Security improvements must be an ongoing priority, with vulnerabilities systematically addressed in alignment with overall IT and business activities. Cross-departmental collaboration contributes to the success of SAP Security by providing valuable insight and other benefits for SOC, risk management, compliance, and development teams.
Interested in learning how adopting an All-in-One Security Platform for SAP can quickly and efficiently help you achieve a mature SAP Security posture? Contact us and we will be happy to tell you more about our guided approach to SAP Security excellence. For more SAP security-related news, articles, and whitepapers, please follow us on LinkedIn!
