Enforcing Risk-based Auditing and Monitoring
Enforcing Risk-based Auditing and
Monitoring in Oracle E-Business Suite
Company type: Subsidiary
Parent Company: One of Europe's most highly valued tech company
Industry: Semiconductors
Primary ERP System: Oracle E-Business Suite
A major semiconductor manufacturer specializing in producing and maintaining lasers for chip manufacturing worldwide realized it needed to improve its audit control activities and enhance operational efficiency. The organization faced challenges in monitoring transactions, enforcing restrictions on database changes, and the effectiveness of its audit oversight.
The organization's complex technological infrastructure and the parent company's need to be compliant with stringent regulatory requirements on data and data protection, such as GDPR, underscored the need for a comprehensive solution to bolster control activities and audit capabilities. Additionally, the organization wanted to maintain accuracy and consistency in its Oracle E-Business Suite configurations, which could lead to operational risks and increased costs.
In response to these challenges, the semiconductor manufacturer prioritized the implementation of a robust Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution to mitigate risks associated with unauthorized access and ensure compliance with regulatory mandates. Recognizing the importance of controlling access to sensitive systems and data, the organization leveraged PAM capabilities to gain granular control over privileged accounts and access rights, reducing the likelihood of data breaches and enhancing security posture.
The centralized management and monitoring features offered by SafePaaS´ PAM solution streamlined audit activities and facilitated prompt updates across the Oracle E-Business Suite environment. This strategic investment in PAM fortified the company's control framework and positioned it to effectively address evolving cybersecurity threats and regulatory requirements in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
The Challenges:
Lack of Audit Oversight: The organization recognized the importance of strengthening its audit oversight mechanisms to ensure the accuracy and integrity of its financial transactions and database operations. Strengthening this oversight is essential for maintaining trust and transparency.
Third-Party Risk: The organization recognized the need to address third-party risks within its technology ecosystem. Third-party access introduces additional vulnerabilities and potential points of compromise. It is crucial to implement strong measures to mitigate associated risks effectively. Failure to manage third-party access adequately could lead to unauthorized data breaches and compromise the integrity of sensitive information.
Lack of Visibility in Database Changes: The organization identified the lack of visibility in database changes, which can affect data integrity and regulatory compliance. Visibility is essential in detecting unauthorized alterations that can compromise accuracy and reliability. This requires effective monitoring to track and audit database changes, ensuring regulatory compliance and data integrity.
Navigating Technological Complexity: To navigate the complexity of providing access to numerous individuals required to operate integrations and interfaces supporting its operations, the customer took a systematic approach. Unlike traditional scenarios where database administrators predominantly manage access, the customer grants access to various users, including developers, engineers, contractors, and third-party vendors, each requiring specific privileges to carry out their tasks effectively. The organization ensured data access governance and protection while facilitating seamless collaboration and operational efficiency.
Meeting Regulatory Demands: Operating within a highly regulated environment, the organization prioritizes compliance with stringent standards such as GDPR and industry-specific regulations. The organization implemented strategic solutions and maintains proactive compliance measures to effectively manage complex regulatory landscapes, upholding standards, protecting data, and building trust with customers and regulatory authorities.
Enhancing ERP Configuration Management: The organization recognized the importance of maintaining accuracy and consistency in Oracle E-Business Suite configurations, underscoring its commitment to mitigating operational risks and optimizing processes. By implementing a solution for configuration management, the organization achieved several key objectives:
Ensuring accuracy and consistency in configurations minimizes the likelihood of errors and discrepancies, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and reliability.
Streamlining processes through effective configuration management improves workflow efficiency and reduces operational costs associated with errors and rework.
A well-defined configuration management strategy enables the customer to adapt quickly to changing business requirements, ensuring agility and responsiveness in a dynamic business environment.
Prioritizing configuration management aligns with the customer's strategic goals of operational excellence, cost optimization, and agility in meeting evolving business needs.
Improving Centralized IT Control: Recognizing the need for a centralized platform for managing IT controls, the organization focused on overcoming obstacles to ensure uniform compliance enforcement and facilitate timely updates. Enhancing this centralized approach was critical for mitigating security risks and avoiding regulatory penalties. The organization streamlined processes, enhanced visibility, and improved governance across its technological landscape by consolidating IT controls onto a centralized platform. This centralized approach simplifies control management and strengthens the organization's ability to respond quickly to emerging threats and regulatory changes. Additionally, by centralizing IT controls, the organization can more effectively monitor access, enforce security policies, and detect anomalies, mitigating security risks and safeguarding sensitive data. Centralization is essential to improve security and compliance and avoid penalties.
The Solution:
Enhanced Comprehensive Visibility: Comprehensive visibility across the entire technology stack, spanning servers, databases, applications, and cloud infrastructure, facilitating the detection of unauthorized individuals, unusual identities, and privileged account behaviors.
Efficient Access Management: Utilization of policy-based just-in-time access management for all privileged authorizations to monitor changes within the database effectively.
Unified Security Posture: Integration and consolidation of fragmented Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools into a unified platform to strengthen the organization's security posture, accompanied by immediate reporting of sensitive data access incidents to IT Security and Compliance Managers.
Agile Privileged Access Management Solutions: Implementation of simplified and agile Privileged Access Management solutions at the database level, adept at navigating the complexities of global privacy regulations and the escalating cyber threats landscape.
Strengthened Security Posture: Enhance security posture by consolidating the technology stack, thwarting unauthorized and inappropriate data access attempts effectively.
Mitigation of Insider Threats: Mitigation of insider threats and prevention of entitlement creep, resulting in reduced data breaches and leaks, ensuring data integrity and facilitating improved decision-making processes.
Comprehensive Policy Application: Surrounding coverage of the entire technology stack with consistently applied policies to all identities, including machines and bots, built upon a policy-based access governance platform that supports comprehensive governance for any enterprise application, cloud infrastructure, and IAM or ITSM system.
Benefits and Outcomes
Customer Success
The semiconductor manufacturer implemented a robust access governance solution with granular privileged access management capabilities, yielding significant outcomes. With heightened data security measures, the organization could protect and restrict access to sensitive information against unauthorized access and breaches and fortify the customer's data integrity. The solution also ensured compliance with industry regulations and standards such as GDPR by implementing strict access controls and monitoring mechanisms.
Access governance processes were streamlined, allowing for efficient management of user permissions and access rights across the customer's IT infrastructure. As a result, users gained access to necessary resources without encountering unnecessary delays or obstacles, leading to increased operational efficiency and productivity. Additionally, the organization minimized its overall risk exposure by mitigating risks associated with unauthorized access and data breaches, safeguarding its reputation and financial sustainability. These outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of the SafePaaS platform in enhancing security, compliance, and operational efficiency across the organization.