Robotic Process Automation — Getting to Know RPA Security Practices

In today’s world, where robotic process automation (RPA) is revolutionising the way business operates, it is no surprise that demand for RPA has grown exponentially and is being adopted by companies of all sizes, from small to large scale.

With RPA proving beneficial to organizations, the emphasis has shifted drastically to scaling up its capabilities by empowering and training bots to handle repetitive and mundane tasks without human assistance.

Despite all the hype, the RPA solution has to access multiple applications across multiple networks in order to achieve success. It must be able to access data from a variety of portals, web applications, internal tools, application credentials, passwords, inventory data, client data, documents, and confidential information, in order to complete any rule-based execution or transaction.

Due to its conclusive benefits, RPA solutions are deployed and executed across domains and functions in an organization which poses significant threats and risks to security. Below, we highlight a few best practices for deploying a safe and secure RPA solution across your organization.

Unique Credentials

It is essential to have unique credentials for bots in order to monitor and track their activities.

The bots’ credentials should be separated from the human accounts and clearly bifurcated so that the bots can be efficiently controlled and managed.

Centralised Credential Repository

A centralised credential repository or console is recommended if multiple bots are required to be maintained across functions and more bots are expected to be deployed in the future. This will help to easily maintain the bots’ credentials.

The centralised credential repository will help you automate the process of activating and deactivating any bots — any changes to the configuration or governance policies at the organizational level will be easy to implement.

As a best practice, it is also important to change or update the bots’ credentials in frequent duration.

Secured Centralised Data Repository

In our modern technological world, securing data can be one of the biggest challenges. To prevent data hacks and data losses, or unexpected interpretations of data, it is imperative to develop the bots to fetch all the associated data from a centralised secured repository using APIs or micro services.

It is always recommended to have the data encrypted while processing. As a best practice, this is necessary to avoid any form of hard coding of data in your RPA solution.

Restricted Access Privilege

For any RPA solution, a key aspect of security involves providing restricted access to bots. The bots’ access should be limited to what is required to do their job — nothing more, nothing less.

The privilege of access to databases and applications should be restricted wherever possible. It should only be limited to read/view mode until the bot is expected to write or edit in the process.

It is always recommended to provide limited access and limited privilege for a single bot. If the solution demands larger access to a wide range of data then the solution should be chunked into smaller solutions and developing different bots will be a preferred approach.

You can also restrict unwanted access to data to make sure that one bot doesn’t override the other bot data and that each bot is unique and separate.

Restricted RPA Console

The RPA Console should be restricted with limited admin access. Each admin access should be enabled with MFA (multi-factor authentication). The activity logs should be strictly maintained for each admin access, and admin access should be immediately revoked if the administrator is no longer associated with the bot process.

Establish Security Governance and Audit Principles

Structured governance and periodic audit policies should be established and executed. A proper checklist for conducting regular assessments should be maintained with defined checks and validation to be performed.

The RPA solution should be compliant and adhere to the GDPR, as well as the governance and privacy policies of your location and organization.

Also, one of the best practices for RPA security includes clearly defining a business continuity plan in case any security breach is encountered.

Maintain Activity Logs

It is always recommended to maintain activity logs for each bot separately and save them in a separate system or cloud. In case of any security breach the logs won’t be impacted and they can be reviewed and analysed by the dev and security teams to identify the root cause and take corrective measures.

RPA Lifecycle Security

RPA solutions also have to go through the software development lifecycle (SDLC) phase, so the security needs to be considered right from the analysis phase of the RPA solution. The RPA scripts should be validated periodically and each RPA solution has to be tested across networks, platforms, and environment, and they have to pass through all security measures before deployment into a production environment.

Organizations follow the habit of deploying an RPA solution across different servers, geo’s, and networks, while deploying each time the solution has to be validated and tested for any security breach.

Conclusion

While the benefits of RPA solutions are evident, there is no denial of the fact that they could be vulnerable and exposed to external and internal threats. This is why it’s important to have proper security measures in place.

Provided the bots are monitored regularly, the security checklist is followed diligently, proper activity logs are implemented, credentials are secured, and governance and security policies are in place, the bots’ performance can be improved, and business risks can be reduced, which in turn helps to generate revenue.

With all these best practices, the implementation of an RPA solution will yield your organization many benefits in the long run.