SAP Security

Protect your business-critical SAP landscape

Your expert for questions

Carsten Crantz

Carsten Crantz
Director at PwC Germany
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Why it is so important to have SAP Security all of one piece

SAP application environments are a highly integrated part of an organization's value chain. They enable the handling of business processes and are an indispensable part of daily operations. In addition, they usually process and store sensitive and highly critical data.

The high flexibility of the SAP landscape and its used components also involves risks. The multitude of possible errors and vulnerabilities can cause operational, financial and reputational damage. This risk is all too often countered by isolated technical measures or corrections. In such a complex and integrated environment with its dynamics, influences and dependencies it is however important to manage SAP security in a risk-oriented way.

Together with you our SAP security experts establish such a framework for your company. To ensure that the risk is appropriately addressed by technical and organisational measures. To assure that effectiveness is sustainable and not only limited to a certain point in time. To protect what is really important: The digital heart of your company.

SAP security all in one

Our view on SAP security incorporates both technical and organizational dimensions. By aligning with established standards and regulatory requirements, we ensure that SAP security is seamlessly integrated into your security and risk management.

Organization und Governance

Bring your specialists together with clear roles and responsibilities!

Anchoring SAP security requires the establishment of an SAP security organization with defined roles and responsibilities. This enables the appropriate coordination of the distributed business, IT and SAP responsibilities in order to initiate and implement security measures in a targeted, efficient and sustainable manner.

Risk and Response Management

Set the basis for a risk-oriented view of SAP security!

A sustainable and risk-oriented level of protection for the SAP landscape and the data it processes requires the definition of necessary protection requirements for the SAP landscape, the associated systems and components, and the continuous review and introduction of targeted security measures.

Sensitive Data Protection

Create transparency about your processed data, their protection needs and secure them!

The highest level of security for your systems and components is ineffective if processed, transmitted or stored data are not considered. Consequently, securing your SAP landscape requires knowledge of data, their protection needs and an appropriate derivation of security and control mechanisms.

Enterprise Access Management

Align your authorization and access control with your business and security requirements!

To ensure secure and compliant operation of SAP, an appropriate enterprise access management system must be designed and established. Technical and organizational measures are derived from a balance between security and business requirements.

Application Security

Prevent the occurrence and exploitation of security vulnerabilities in your SAP application!

In addition to necessary security updates, daily work with SAP applications involves frequent changes in business and technical conditions. Adjustments to the SAP landscape (for example, in authorizations, changes to customer-specific code or administrative activities) should be regulated and controlled to meet security requirements.

Component and Perimeter Security

Secure your SAP environment to strengthen the effectiveness of your application security measures!

Your SAP landscape consists not only of individual SAP systems, but also a multitude of components and technologies. It is essential to subject all of these to risk-oriented configuration and hardening in order to secure the entire SAP landscape.

Infrastructure Security

Set the basis for security by securing the SAP infrastructure!

An SAP system requires a secure environment for a secure operation. In this context, SAP specifics must be known and considered. If your infrastructure, such as operating system, database, or network is not sufficiently adapted to the SAP landscape, this increases the attack surface and the possibility of attacking the further (IT) landscape.

Your journey to a secure SAP landscape

We are happy to master the challenge with you and accompany you from an initial evaluation of your SAP landscape to establishing a sustainable and controlled protection of your SAP landscape. Once you have made it down this path, you yourself will be able to transparently manage your organizations’ SAP security and react to new developments such as S/4, HANA, Fiori and cloud applications in a targeted and secure manner.

Infographic three stages

1st Stage: Evaluation of your SAP landscape and joint travel planning

We recommend a risk-oriented approach to raise the security level of your SAP landscape specifically and sustainably to the level you require. This is to ensure that resources are used cost-effectively and that security and business risks are minimized. For this purpose, we support you with a customized SAP security risk analysis and a resulting joint travel planning. In doing so, we always keep in mind that such a trip often requires various agreements and, depending on its characteristics, also a certain budget. Therefore, we support you with our experience in all necessary preparations.

2nd Stage: Remediation of organizational up to technical in-depth vulnerabilities

Depending on the risk, identified vulnerabilities in the SAP landscape should be specifically remedied. Our common path leads us past organizational, but also in-depth technical challenges. Together we design and implement targeted and sustainable security measures to master the path to a secure SAP landscape.

3rd Stage: Controlled SAP security and secure reaction to emerging challenges

After remedying identified vulnerabilities, frequently the question arises as to how a now secured SAP landscape can be maintained in the future. In order to avoid cost-intensive and subsequent clean-ups, an adequate and risk-oriented response should also be made to business and technical changes.

Together we will enable you as an organization to react to new developments − such as SAP S/4HANA − in a targeted manner.

SAP Security in your S/4HANA Transformation

Are you currently planning your S/4HANA transformation or are you already in the process? To avoid security vulnerabilities and resulting business risks during and after the implementation of S/4HANA, an early and appropriate implementation of security is essential. Explore now in this video.

Your advantages at a glance

SAP security based on established best practices and recommendations

In addition to our own good practices and recommendations, we take into account and orientate ourselves to common standards of SAP, the German-speaking SAP user group (DSAG) and the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). We support you with our accumulated expertise − and we do this tailor-made to your needs.

Combination of technical security expertise and understanding of your business

To ensure the security of SAP landscapes, it is necessary to handle SAP-specific and technical security matters. At the same time, it is necessary to understand your company and to design, coordinate and implement measures according to your needs. In Cyber Security & Privacy we offer you both: a strong technical and organizational understanding.

International Network

Especially in the environment of business applications such as SAP, international matters often have to be considered. At the same time, it is usually necessary to go into technical details of the various technologies used. We access the knowledge of our worldwide Cyber Security and Privacy expert network to provide you with the best possible support for your project.

“Quite often, SAP security activities are still limited to role design and access management or to technically-driven isolated measures. That is not enough: These measures are undoubtedly important, but without embedding them into a comprehensive framework, this is simply building steel doors into cardboard walls.”

Carsten Crantz,Director Cyber Security and Privacy at PwC Germany

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Carsten Crantz

Carsten Crantz

Director, PwC Germany

Daniel Peisker

Daniel Peisker

Senior Manager, Cyber Security & Privacy, PwC Germany

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