Adopting Zero Trust for SAP with Fortinet

⇨ According to recent SAPinsider research, companies surveyed reported that credential compromise was one of the most important cybersecurity threats to SAP Systems.

⇨ By adopting a Zero Trust model, businesses can create a secure environment for their SAP systems, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

⇨ Fortinet provides a suite of tools that help organizations implement Zero Trust effectively within their SAP environments.

The need to protect access to sensitive and confidential data in SAP systems is a major factor driving SAP cybersecurity strategy. According to recent SAPinsider research, companies surveyed reported that credential compromise was one of the most important cybersecurity threats to SAP Systems. Securing SAP systems is becoming more challenging in the present IT landscape due to cloud deployments and increasing remote access points.

Traditional security systems are not effective in handling the diverse forms of intrusion that threat actors use today. To prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access into critical SAP systems, companies can use a zero-trust security framework. It enforces stringent identity verification and access controls for all users and devices, irrespective of whether they are inside or outside the network perimeter. It follows the concept that trust between people and application access must be earned and re-earned with every access attempt.

Fortinet provides a suite of tools that help organizations implement Zero Trust effectively within their SAP environments. Fortinet Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solutions grant access on a per-session basis to individual applications only after devices and users are verified. The following are some of Fortinet’s solutions that implement zero-trust policy.

FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW): FortiGate secures both North-South (N/S) and East-West (E/W) traffic for detailed traffic inspection and it enables implementation of zero-trust policies. It secures SAP protocols, such as SAP DIAG, SAP HANA, and SAP RFC, ensuring legitimate traffic flows securely, while blocking potential threats.

FortiADC (Application Delivery Controllers): FortiADC enhances the scalability and security of applications hosted on-premises and in the cloud. FortiADC provides application acceleration, load balancing, web security, and zero-trust enforcement.

FortiToken for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Zero-trust relies on stringent identity verification. FortiToken helps prevent breaches that occur due to compromised user accounts and passwords by increasing the certainty of the identity of users attempting to access resources. FortiToken is a part of the Fortinet Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution and provides an additional layer of security by enabling multi-factor authentication for users accessing SAP systems.

FortiClient: FortiClient is a fabric agent that runs on an endpoint, such as a laptop or mobile device and communicates with the Fortinet Security Fabric to provide information, visibility, and control to that device. FortiClient offers advanced endpoint security, ensuring that devices accessing SAP systems meet security requirements. FortiClient also provides validated zero-trust certificates for authenticating endpoints in a zero-trust network.

Adopting a Zero Trust framework is highly important for organizations running critical SAP systems. By adopting a Zero Trust model, businesses can create a secure environment for their SAP systems, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and any potential threats. This approach provides greater visibility, better control over access, and the ability to quickly adapt to and handle new cyberthreats as they emerge. Zero Trust helps organizations build a more resilient and secure enterprises, enabling the business to focus on innovation and growth.