Team competitions like the European Football Championships repeatedly show that the supposed favorites do not always win. These competitions have their dynamics and often enable teams to exceed their limits and achieve excellent results. It is reasonable to ask how much we can learn from winning teams when it comes to building a good SAP Security line-up and identifying important success factors required for the journey to SAP Security excellence.
Strength in all disciplines
If you look at successful tournament teams, you will notice that they have significant strengths in many, if not all, areas of the team line-up, such as defense, midfield and attack. SAP Security also benefits greatly when organizations gain a high maturity level in multiple topics. This includes Security Monitoring and Threat Detection, as well as general system hardening through efficient Patch Management. It also involves eliminating weaknesses in the system configuration and the ABAP coding of custom applications. All these disciplines are important if you want to fend off the opponent, or in SAP’s case, cyber-attacks.
Teamwork and coordination
However, in football, having good individual players is not enough. You can only win a tournament if the players work together as a team, communicate effectively during the game and perform at a high level in a coordinated manner. The same applies to SAP Security. Success is only possible when teams responsible for the various topics reach a high level of coherence and maturity and adopt processes that enable them to work efficiently together. For example, SAP Security managers only know whether potential vulnerabilities have been exploited if they combine Vulnerability Management with Threat Detection. For this reason, SAP Enterprise Threat Detection can be enhanced with Security & Compliance findings. Patch Management also benefits when known security gaps in the SAP standard code are monitored immediately after publication, ensuring that the SAP Basis team can promptly import the necessary SAP Security Notes.
Efficiency
The European Football Championships last several weeks, and successful teams know how to use their strengths efficiently and maintain high performance from the beginning to the finals. Efficiency is also necessary in the SAP Security process as it determines whether the security solution creates added value or simply keeps the administration busy. Today, lean processes for administering and maintaining solutions, along with automated alerts in case of critical events via email or integrations in SIEM or ITSM systems, are taken for granted. SAP Security platforms can help to pick up the low-hanging fruits and achieve the best results with minimal effort. For example, it first eliminates the most critical vulnerabilities that have the greatest impact on their SAP landscape but can be easily mitigated.
Speed and adaptability
A successful football team can always adapt to their opponents and adjust their style of play, especially when the coach is guiding them from outside surveillance. Speed is crucial when it comes to responding to unexpected events, such as a counterattack. Cyber-attacks are always unexpected events and require quick responses from SAP Security teams. Threat Detection not only requires speed but also comprehensive data, such as through HyperLogging, to be able to assess the situation as best as possible. In addition, a comprehensive automation framework helps to respond to a wide range of events in an automated and adapted manner.
Good preparation and strategy
The foundation for a successful European Football Championships is often laid well before the tournament begins. Good training preparation is just as essential as a deliberate game strategy. Successful defense against cyber-attacks also depends on whether SAP Security teams are well prepared and have done their hardening homework. This includes access to an always up-to-date SAP Security Online Knowledge Base, as well as the consistent implementation of SAP Security guidelines and recommendations. A successful SAP Security strategy is also long-term and emphasizes continuous improvement. An all-in-one Security Platform for SAP is the fastest and most efficient way to a mature SAP Security posture.
