Numerous big name companies have had the same issue in common: serious security breaches that resulted in millions of stolen records and a tremendous detriment to the company’s reputation. High profile breaches indicate that security needs to be a priority at every company. While it may seem costly, maintaining a secure environment pays off in peace of mind, protected data, and happy customers.
Assess and Assign
Evaluate the strength of your SAP environment. Your IT team is the best suited for this task, and the amount of time needed to do a fair evaluation should be reasonable. Obviously, a start-up’s network will probably require less time than that of an established enterprise, but giving your team the time they need to do the best job possible is vital to developing an overall profile of your security risks.
Part of your system’s security is dependent on the people who work with it regularly. How does your company view security? Do you have continuing process improvements to protecting user and employee information? Do your employees know that you are interested in security, and do they relay that to businesses and customers?
An assessment can help understand challenges, but it’s important to keep in mind that there is no such thing as no security risk. Rather, you can assign risk categories to different areas. For example, a low-risk item (not everyone is changing their password every six months) would be less important to fix than a high-risk item (non-IT employees actually have access to the operating system commands).
Strategizing Security
Your evaluation can give insight into weaknesses in your system and allow for the development of a plan of attack. Preparing for how to deal with these weaknesses is key to the successful enhancement of your system’s security.
Part of your plan should include steps that promote a culture of security. Written guidelines, brief meetings, and webinars highlighting the importance of security (and what employees can do) can all play a part in creating an enhanced security environment.
Be realistic about security and costs: carefully performing resource allocation at this stage can save money and manpower. Get time estimates for each fix and organize schedules accordingly. Have your team develop an estimate for the components for the job, including new hardware or software. Now is the time to decide if you need to expand your IT team or contract with an outside agency to further test or secure your system. Outside solutions providers can be helpful with implementing fixes to the system, since they allow for dedicated personnel to be working on security solutions while your team handles the day-to-day issues.
Implement and Augment
Carry out critical objectives first, and allocate time later for non-vital system fixes. With any tech fix, flexibility is extremely important — schedules will fluctuate based on the actual problem, and sometimes uncovering one weakness leads to the discovery of other bugs. As system weaknesses appear, tweak your plan accordingly to provide your data the best coverage possible.
Unfortunately, once security issues have been addressed, the threat of attacks against your company does not diminish. Regular security checks are important, and keeping up-to-date with software and hardware is vital to continued success.
Security might not be glamorous, but its ROI is not paid in cash. It is instead found in the stronger relationship you create with customers who know you have their best interests at heart and employees who act as emissaries for your good name.
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