Lay a Security Foundation for Your RPA Strategy

[rakhirhif8963]

Keep in mind that an RPA solution itself isn’t particularly intelligent or adaptable, so it can run into security issues related to changes made elsewhere. “Most environments are complex, so there are changes happening on a daily basis, including application updates, security patches, process changes, etc.,” says Huff. To stay in control, you’ll want to arm yourself with adjacent or complementary technologies, such as process orchestration or process mining. This is another area where cross-functional partnerships (a DMO or CoE approach) are important.

Tom Thaler, Director of Product Management for ARIS at Software AG, shares this view, projecting it onto a situation where an organization has deployed multiple RPA bots in its ERP system to perform repetitive tasks. “Let’s say the ERP system needs to be updated for security reasons or to comply with new regulations,” he says. “Often, the impact of an update, especially at the interface level, is unpredictable because IT doesn’t know which bots will be affected, and as a result, they stop working. This azerbaijan mobile database a stressful situation: fixes have to be made, because without them, critical processes don’t work properly.”

So, RPA security is equally about whether your existing programs and processes take RPA bots into account. For example, if we change X, we also need to update Y. If we don’t, things will get out of control.

Thinking that automation will solve all your problems, so to speak, automatically is a mistake. While it’s important to include security in your RPA vendor evaluation criteria, like other technologies, it doesn’t mean you’ll eliminate risk entirely. According to Roy, the best defense for RPA is to follow enterprise software security best practices. Like technology, security is more of a cultural issue, or at least it should be. Teams that have a culture of security will have fewer problems implementing bots than teams that aren’t prepared.