After developing only a few basic use cases, we decided that the deep application knowledge required, and the lack of context in individual SAP log sources, made this effort much more complex than initially envisioned. And that project would have only covered the monitoring part! That’s when I went out looking for a commercial solution to close the SAP security gap at my company. I wanted a solution that would seamlessly integrate SAP landscape visibility into my existing security technology stack, and program, in a way that took the burden of deep SAP knowledge off the cybersecurity team. 

A lot of information security experts I talk too, that have not fully explored SAP, assume it’s just a standard application with a database. But there is a complex architecture, and more than a dozen log sources behind the scenes that need to be fully understood in order to apply adequate security controls. Then, you have the concept of clients to separate the individual business areas from each other and a unique way of interfacing to exchange sensitive data. Overall, SAP is a technical landscape like no other in the enterprise, that requires deep expertise to properly secure. Moreover, there is a distinct language barrier between SAP engineers and cybersecurity engineers where it is often difficult to even describe security controls in the same way as you would for the more traditional IT environment.