Completing Compliance Frameworks with Antivirus Solutions

SAP organizations must focus on protecting their SAP landscapes and all the vital data contained within from any malicious actors seeking to penetrate their defenses. Yet there is another major consideration companies must make when deciding on how to proceed with their GRC posture and that is the compliance frameworks they must adhere to.

Different organizations, depending on the locations and industries they operate in, must follow certain protocols like NIS2, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley (SoX), GDPR, and many more. Companies must take care to follow these guidelines, otherwise they risk significant non-compliance penalties and fines.

Virus Protection in Framework Compliance

These frameworks all have unique protection requirements of different standards, yet they have several things in common – antivirus protection. For instance, the PCI DSS set of security guidelines has explicit requirements that companies keep their antivirus solutions updated to protect against updated computer viruses. Microsoft’s Supplier Security and Privacy Assurance (SSPA) also requires suppliers to have antivirus software, while other major organizations like the U.S. government’s CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) recommends antivirus software.

However, other sets of requirements are less explicit – HIPAA, for example, simply says that companies that are under this framework dictates that companies must “protect against reasonably anticipated, impermissible uses or disclosures.”

While it does not specifically call out antivirus solutions, organizations that do not have any antivirus protections and face an attack may not be complying. Companies that have access to sensitive data can be reasonably expected to utilize state-of-the-art antivirus solutions to safeguard that information.

Other major frameworks like SoX, NIS2, and GDPR also have similar instructions for organizations to make reasonable efforts to protect from any potential breaches like viruses.

Remaining Compliant

These regulations may feel cumbersome, but they represent important directives that aim to keep sensitive information out of the hands of malicious actors. Whether companies are explicitly required to have antivirus solutions or are expected to make an effort to keep data safe, antivirus solutions are an important piece of a complete GRC solution.

SAP landscapes have blind spots in their attack surface that baseline SAP GRC solutions do not cover. To ensure that they meet compliance requirements, many SAP organizations are turning to bowbridge. Specifically designed for SAP applications, bowbridge offers anti-malware and content security tools that plug gaps at the SAP application layer in on-premises and in the cloud.

Without application-layer anti-malware, malicious content passes through SAP’s application layer undetected and can do tremendous damage to users and the application itself. This is why bowbridge scans for file-based threats, offers malware protection, and specifically protects the SAP application layer, complementing whatever protection the customer or platform provider chose to deploy at the OS-level.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Understand your compliance requirements. Companies must ensure that they are in compliance with all applicable regulations. These rules shift often, so companies need to employ solutions that adapt to stay on the cutting edge of cybersecurity and GRC.

Go beyond baseline coverage. While some organizations may be tempted to employ the bare minimum GRC and cybersecurity solutions to save money, the cost of a breach is always much greater. Leading organizations rely on solutions like those from bowbridge to ensure that they have a complete cybersecurity posture.

Don’t find just any solution. Find the right one. Organizations may try to meet the minimum requirements to avoid non-compliance penalties, installing antivirus solutions that are not designed to meet their specific needs. SAP organizations should find solutions like those from bowbridge that are specifically designed to protect SAP landscapes and deliver the same level of protection – regardless of the stage of cloud adoption.