ERP Security for Utility Companies
DownloadFor utility companies, the impact of a successful cyber attack on their critical ERP, production and supply chain, or customer portals could be devastating.
Cyberattacks targeting the systems that support critical operations such as energy assets, metering, and field and customer service are growing in number and severity with financial fraud, theft of customer data, and disruption of critical infrastructure the primary goals. As a side effect, outages created by these attacks can have real human costs on those that rely on power or water for survival. Under the growing threat of targeted cyber attacks, energy and water utility companies are challenged to protect their critical systems while modernizing their systems to take advantage of clean energy technologies and improving access for their customers and workforce, all under the watchful eye of increased government oversight.
Key Risk Factors
Increasing ERP System Attacks
Cyber attacks targeting ERP systems of utility companies are on the rise, and successful attacks have the potential to disrupt the delivery of electricity and potable water as well as put customer personally identifiable information at risk.
Cloud Migration and Modernization
Modernization of systems, particularly cloud migrations, are critical in order to improve access to systems that contain customer and partner data. Harnessing the cloud to streamline processes and reduce costs is key to operate more efficiently.
Critical Infrastructure Regulations
Utility companies, as critical infrastructure, are subject to strict government regulations. New clean energy legislation means even more attention must be paid to compliance audits. Failing to comply with audit regulations can result in significant financial impacts to the organization as well as loss of reputation.
Key Challenges
Limited Visibility for Security
The lack of visibility into ERP system landscapes and direct threats has greatly impacted modernization projects. Inadequate tools and resources make it challenging to ensure uptime, prior to and during, cloud migration projects. s
Understaffed Teams
Workforce shortages in the security industry are further compounded by the significant number of utilities workers approaching retirement age. Cost cutting measures are resulting in reduced hiring and training budgets for staff.
Security Controls for Compliance
Mandatory compliance audits often result in time consuming manual processes. Aligning security controls to compliance requirements for data and authentication for ERP systems can be a resource intensive process.
Solution
Onapsis Provides a Better Approach to ERP Security
Fortunately, securing your complex ERP landscape doesn’t have to be complicated, even with all the advanced threats and attacks out in the wild.
That’s where Onapsis comes in. As the undisputed experts in business application security with the most prolific threat research team for SAP and Oracle, Onapsis has been on the frontlines securing the world’s leading utility companies for over a decade now. We’re proud to be an Oracle partner and the only application security platform in the SAP Endorsed Apps program.
With Onapsis, you get complete 360 degree security for your critical ERP applications, helping you:
- Automate security tasks for a faster, less resource intensive, process for compliance audits
- Manage risk with specific threat research, analysis, and monitoring so your team can effectively take action
- Integrate with existing security resources so familiar ticketing systems and SIEMs can bring ERP security into SOC playbooks
Case Study
F1000 Gas & Electric Utilities Company Builds SAP Vulnerability Management Program, Reduces Remediation Time by 80%
Challenge
This gas and electric utilities company was heavily reliant on SAP applications for their business-critical processes. However, they had no way to measure their attack surface accurately and act on unaddressed or unmonitored risk. They needed to address this risk immediately, while considering future proofing any solution for an upcoming SAP S/4HANA RISE project.
Solution
The company deployed Onapsis Assess, which immediately delivered a deep map of their attack surface to help them establish baselines and gave them comprehensive vulnerability management for their existing SAP applications. In the time since, they’ve uncovered unmonitored assets and legacy misconfigurations they never would have found otherwise, helping them continue to move their security baseline forward. This baseline will also be used during the upcoming migration project to ensure their new systems are configured securely and reduce the time and resources needed for future compliance audits on these systems.
Learn more about how Onapsis helps utility companies protect the systems and data supporting their ERP and other business-critical operations from SAP and Oracle. onapsis.com/utilities
Reference
1 IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022
2 Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report
3 IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022