SAP systems have an incredibly large number of parts, and their architecture can be vast and exquisite, situated on-premise, in the cloud, or both. Such a system involves many solutions, and as a result, vulnerabilities may appear that were not considered by anyone.
That is why the understanding that SAP server security should be approached proactively and multi-level is critical. Sometimes features that offer the highest security returns are those often ignored or unoticed.
This list of the 7 less-considered security measures will help you find out if your landscape effectively takes advantage of these valuable safeguards.
1. SAP Code Vulnerability Scanning
With the help of SAP server code scanning, you will be able to scan the code for weaknesses without any interruption until the entire system landscape is scanned. Automated custom code scanning solutions can identify high-risk issues such as code defects, data breaches, misconfigurations, outdated patches, and many more.
Since it is relatively easy to scan SAP code and identify key vulnerabilities on a large scale, development teams can focus on the actual problems and errors before they are exploited in cyber attacks. Code scanning is a very important factor in revamping SAP environments to be secure from new and upcoming threats that target source code.
2. SAP User Access Reviews
Excessive, inactive, unnecessary, and unnecessarily granted SAP server user access is very vulnerable. Administrator accounts and other privileged accounts create entry points that enable the attacker to infiltrate the target system and ex-filtrate data.
- By doing this, it is possible to review the user authorizations of SAP and the level of their activity in order to identify whether they match business requirements.
- You are able to identify any accounts that are inactive, those that are duplicates, or those that may have been granted improper access, which can then be locked or deleted.
- One of the most important things for maintaining least privilege and user accounts’ life cycles is an access review.
- While access control measures work to achieve security, the latter deteriorates steadily due to the accumulation of permissions if the measures are not maintained actively.
Regular reviews make it difficult for such access to go unnoticed due to their schedules.
3. SAP Network Segmentation
The operational SAP server systems interact with millions of endpoints and third-party applications, which increases vulnerabilities. Malicious actors then navigate these other less secured perimeters to gain entry into more secure SAP systems or applications.
Network segmentation isolates segments based on data types and security levels to contain vulnerable components. The idea is to store SAP systems in controlled network segments with controlled connections, as this will help to reduce the possibility of lateral movement.
Dividing your landscape into separate zones focused on safety gives multiple layers of protection against intrusions. Hence, organizations often fail to update their respective zones in light of changes in assets and data flow. In so doing, re validating segmentation controls confirms that the networks are properly compartmentalized or not.
4. SAP Penetration Testing
Penetration testing aims at replicating real-life attacks, whose main objective is to identify weak links that might be missed during the search for easily accessible areas. The discoveries made will help the organizations combat the deeply rooted threats before the real black-hat hackers notice them.
This is true especially given the fact that organizations are constantly updating their system environments and there are always new threats lurking around, so regular pentesting is the only way to uncover latent vulnerabilities.
Since single tests happen after some time, they result in progressive security degradation as new assets are put in place. Constant examination helps to maintain protection relevant to its usage and current risks.
5. Security Monitoring and Analytics in SAP Environment
Both preventive and detective security controls have a lack of protection without an effective method of monitoring and analyzing the situation. Analyzing vast data processes to identify risks necessitates the use of specialized tools.
- Consumption of event streams from across SAP deployments into a SIEM thus provides you with a centralized OS as well as behavioral analysis. It is possible to set up general parameters, monitor abnormalities, expand details of received alerts, detect patterns of attacks, and troubleshoot problems.
- Nevertheless, a variety of organizations still gather security event data but often never analyze it to discover threats. To ensure such threats are not concealed within systems, analysis of SAP server activity for signs of compromise is omitted.
The complex process of data analysis defines mature analytics as an essential feature for obtaining intelligence from initially collected data.
6. SAP Cloud Security
Outsourcing SAP 4U rack workloads to the cloud generates new security challenges with security risk sharing between tenant and provider. Although threats and misconfigurations extend beyond cloud-native tactics, confidentiality, integrity, and availability remain at risk.
Cloud security strategies need to integrate across a single platform, implementing protections for the cloud from the cloud’s life cycle and workloads’ security across the hybrid systems. Closer integration of CASBs, DLPs, EDRs and SIEMs enhances risk mitigation to the maximum.
However, there are some organizations that fail to consider the implementation of integrated security piles into the SAP cloud infrastructure. It is a system failure because disparate measures make up the cloud’s protection, and threats find the cracks. The visibility across the distributed SAP ecosystem, context, and controls offers the necessary foundation to ensure protection for these critical architectures.
7. SAP Supply Chain Security
Managing these supply chain networks means going beyond global physical access control to risk management across the company’s owned and leased assets. It is essential to understand the security maturity of third parties through questionnaires and assessments, where one is able to identify potential threats that threat actors can use to penetrate your SAP 4U rack systems.
Based on the partner’s cyber risk posture assessment and applying security access controls where necessary, you can restrict connectivity to low-score partners. It could also be used to detect anomalous behaviours suggesting threat activity, leveraging trusted supplier connections to navigate.
Final Words
The capabilities outlined in this post serve as enforcement and fallback options that should make environments inherently more difficult to penetrate. It is by incorporating these strengthened layers into your business that you reduce the probabilities of a successful large-scale intrusion. SAP security can be a complex challenge, but it’s important to leverage different strategies and techniques to address real-world risks that may go unnoticed at first glance.
