Cyber security threats
and the ever evolving threat landscape is increasingly becoming a bugbear for
most of the enterprises in India, whether they are government or private
organisations. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)
stated that until June 2017 alone, India witnessed more than 27,000 cyber
security threats, which is alarming and raises many concerns. While the attacks
are far more complicated and nuanced now than ever before, and require constant
intervention with the latest technologies, many of the enterprises do not have
adequate cyber security checks and measures in place.
With the security of the
cloud, IoT and big data all taking centre stage, one of the often overlooked
vector from an organisation’s security standpoint would be protection of their
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, despite it presenting significant
vulnerabilities. ERP systems work with large volumes of vital company, client
and employee data. Even a minor security setback in ERP systems can disrupt the
fine balance between processes and expose sensitive data to malware and
ransomware attacks. Latest cloud-enabled ERP systems handle data from multiple
devices and are accessed by multiple users across multiple platforms. This
increases the vulnerability of the system and its processes. Clearly, security
should be a priority for ERP ecosystems considering recent cyber-attacks such
as WannaCry, Petya that have disrupted organisations globally.
In a recent ERP Cybersecurity survey 2017 of more than 1,900
cybersecurity experts, nearly 89% of them expect to see a surge in attacks on
ERP systems. 33% opine that “significant increase” in attacks and a majority of
respondents said they are largely unaware that upgrading the ERP
software can help avoid major security issues.
The situation might seem alarming but its solution is fairly
simple. Timely upgrades to your legacy or recent ERP systems can enhance your
system’s credibility and efficiency.
Benefits of timely
upgradation of ERP software –
- Outdated ERP software has incompatibility issues:
Outdated software won’t
support new features. Technical support and desktop troubleshooting options are
also limited for redundant ERP applications. Incompatible software is bound to
crash and cause irrevocable financial loss to the enterprise. In the rapidly-evolving
ERP world, the need of the hour is to update software to the latest version and
benefit from latest features and services and ample backend support.
- Legacy ERP software is prone to vulnerabilities:
Just as ERP developers
are constantly looking for better ERP functionalities, software hackers are
devising innovative means to intercept sensitive systems. If your ERP system
houses confidential data on sales, accounting, finance or personal data of
employees and customers, its security should be watertight. Legacy ERP systems
are not competent enough to counter new-age security threats. The recent credit
card theft in the US done by hijacking the Point of Sale (PoS) device powered
by a weak ERP system is a classic example of how vulnerable outdated ERP
systems are. A timely upgrade by a secure ERP system helps avoid data breach.
We are aware of the
importance of security for ERP and our offering which is a cloud-enabled ERP
system, has been designed using industry best practices and encompasses
end-to-end security management and maintenance features to ensure highest
standards of security and safety. What enterprises need to ensure is to protect
their confidential data using multi-layered security parameters, which is
almost impossible to intrude or breech.
With the threat landscape getting more and more complex, it
should be a top priority for CTOs and CIOs to remain vigilant and educate
themselves on ERP security, to ensure their organisation remain operational
during a cyber-attack.
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