RPA gained traction due to its ability to automate repetitive tasks, eliminate human error, and enhance productivity. But, data leakage and threats are two major risks with RPA. As the bots handle sensitive data, they can be exposed without robust security measures in place.
Currently, RPA cannot mimic human actions to ensure security and handle sensitive data. Companies using RPA need to worry about security risks such as unauthorized data access and weak authentication.
Threats like these result in compromised passwords or security keys, data leakage, and compliance issues.
Security Risks and Challenges of RPA
1. Audit Log Maintenance
Audit logs track bot activities to monitor its health and effectiveness. For example, the log data will help determine why a bot stops working.
But, flawed logging and lack of audit trails make detecting and responding to security threats hard. Weak auditing practices won’t detect minor security breaches until they cause major harm.
2. Ineffective and Tampered Bots
Bots may not perform efficiently due to defective coding or testing. Also, unprotected source code of RPA bots allows hackers to access the script, make alterations, and perform unauthorized actions. Due to this, hackers get unlimited access to sensitive data.
3. Data Exposure and Misuse
RPA bots have access to sensitive customer and confidential business data. Hackers can exploit the privileged gateways and gain control over poorly configured RPA bots. This gives them access to internal company systems and infect them with malware.
All these actions pose a significant threat to data privacy and sabotage compliance with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA.
4. Threat Landscape and Poor Bot Password Management
RPA requires internal and external integrations. But, weak implementation and data encryption expand the IT infrastructure’s threat landscape. This exposes the firms to attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
Moreover, hackers can overwhelm the RPA system with excessive requests (DDoS attacks), causing downtime or performance issues.
5. Unsecured Frameworks and Costs
An unsecured RPA framework can expose firms to new risks and threats. Further, RPA implementation increases risks that lead to penalties enforced by regulatory bodies for non-compliance or breaches.
Ways to Mitigate RPA Security Risks and Challenges
Not mitigating these threats will allow hackers to develop RPA in a way that breaches the firm’s defenses and steals data.
Here are a few ways to mitigate the risks and challenges:
1. Define Bot Actions and Identity
Setting a clear identity for each RPA bot ensures dedicated authentication credentials and identity naming conditions. Firms must remove privileged credentials from scripts and store them in a secured location.
Use two-factor” human to system” authentication with username and password authentication.
2. Limit RPA Account Privileges
Unlimited account permissions raise the possibility of fraud. Firms must limit the bots’ access by giving them the least privileges and restricting access to just the apps used to complete their tasks.
For example, an RPA script that enables the bot to copy and paste the values from the database into an email must only have “read” access, not “write.”
3. Ensure the RPA Platform Generates Accurate and Consistent Logs
Firms need to track logs when an RPA security incident occurs. Hence, ensuring that the RPA generates an accurate log free of loopholes that might hinder any investigation is essential.
4. Review and Validate RPA Scripts
Maintaining RPA bots is a continuous process. This means that once the bots are in production, they must be monitored and run through necessary iterations. It helps address risks detected from flagged incidents and exception reports.
5. Developing an RPA Security Breach Incident Response Plan (IRP)
Developing an effective incident response plan (IRP) is crucial to managing and mitigating data breaches in RPA implementations. Firms can ensure timely detection and recovery from security breaches by deploying a robust IR framework.
Here are the key steps to developing an IRP for RPA security breaches.
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Establish an IR Team
Assemble a dedicated IR team with key stakeholders from IT, security, RPA operations, and legal departments. This team will harmonize IR efforts, define roles and responsibilities, and ensure clear communication during security incidents.
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Establish an Incident Classification and Escalation Process
Establish a classification system to classify RPA-related incidents as per severity and impact. This will enable the IR team to prioritize their response efforts effectively.
An escalation procedure must define the thresholds for escalating incidents to higher management. It ensures the timely involvement of decision makers.
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Devise an IRP
Create a broad IRP tailored to RPA-related incidents. The plan should include strategies for incident-
- detection
- reporting
- containment
- eradication
- recovery
- post-incident analysis.
Document team members’ roles and communicate with them specific considerations related to RPA systems.
Also Read: Three Myths About Robotic Process Automation Debunked
Conclusion
As per a recent report by Intelligent Automation Network, “2023 Intelligent Automation and RPA Outlook,”
- 42% said they are currently investing in RPA
- 54% said they planned to invest in RPA in 2023
RPA introduces new app layers that are prone to attack. Also, bots can fail to function correctly without continuous monit0oring, resulting in problems, errors, and possible damage.
Hence, firms that use RPA to boost efficiency should carefully prepare their deployments to avoid security breaches. To reduce security risks-
- Ensure RPA console access is secured by RPA administrators’ passwords.
- Adopt best cyber-security practices, track and isolate incidents, and suspend and terminate suspicious sessions immediately.
- Create a risk system that assesses the overall RPA implementation and scripts.
- Scan and validate RPA scripts regularly to find flaws in business logic.
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