Why Secure Business Application Onboarding and Integration is Critical
Business applications have become the backbone of modern businesses, not only helping them to be more efficient and more productive, but also to encourage collaboration and innovation among their employees. However, with many organisations increasingly relying on these tools, it’s more and more important that firms ensure the secure onboarding and integration of these applications. This is paramount, as it protects businesses from cyber threats and also ensures that they’re complying with ever-evolving regulations.
The Role of Business Applications
From customer relationship management (CRM) systems to enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools, these applications handle vast amounts of sensitive data. After all, they’re helping with everything from streamlining operations, making communication between employees and different departments easier, and even helping with decision-making. However, each new application that is integrated into your organisation’s ecosystem can also introduce a host of new vulnerabilities if it hasn’t been properly secured.
Why Secure Onboarding and Integration is Vital
The secure onboarding and integration of business applications is critical for several reasons. For a start, cyber criminals will often target new or poorly integrated business applications, seeing them as potential entry points into an organisation’s network. If businesses don’t implement robust security measures like IAM, then they’re more likely to be hit by data breaches.
There are also a number of cyber security regulations, like GDPR and NIS2, that require strong data protection measures. The secure integration of business applications ensures compliance with these regulations – not only does this secure data, but it helps businesses to avoid legal and financial penalties, and protect their reputation. Secure onboarding also helps to keep your business running, preventing any disruptions caused by security incidents and ensuring that your day-to-day operations are uninterrupted.
Establishing a Secure Foundation
In order to build a secure foundation for business applications, organisations should be conducting security assessments before they even think about integrating any applications. This way, they can identify any potential vulnerabilities before they can pose any threat to your business. With the help of Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions, like the kind we offer here at Infosec K2K, you can guarantee that only users who you’ve authorised are able to access specific business applications or files.
We also recommend continuous monitoring – with 24/7 monitoring from a managed SOC (Security Operations Centre), you can detect any threats in real-time. Employee training is also crucial – after all, 74% of data breaches are the result of human error. Educating your staff about security protocols – and best practices when it comes to using and onboarding new business applications – is the best way to prevent any human error from compromising your own cyber security.
Streamline Security With Our Factory-style Approach
By adopting a streamlined approach to application onboarding, you can improve your productivity while improving your cyber security. By implementing standardised procedures across your business, you can ensure consistency and reduce the likelihood of security oversights. A well-defined business application onboarding framework helps to eliminate any gaps that might exist in your security, and also ensures that every new application will follow the same structured and secure integration process. With automation tools to handle repetitive tasks, you can also minimise human error throughout the process, as well as save time. We also recommend conducting regular audits, both on your cyber defences and on your onboarding process, to assess how effective it is. With regular assessments like this, you can identify weaknesses, make any changes that are needed, and ensure you’re complying with security regulations.
Here at Infosec K2K, we understand the many challenges that today’s organisations face when they’re integrating new business applications. With our end-to-end management, however, we’ll take care of those challenges for you. Our team of experts will ensure the entire process is handled seamlessly, from creating a bespoke onboarding plan to conducting thorough regulatory compliance checks. We’ll eliminate vulnerabilities from day one, and ensure all of your applications are integrated safely and efficiently. What’s more, we’ll make sure you’re up to date with the latest industry regulations, so you can stay compliant and secure throughout the onboarding process and afterwards.
Tips for Evaluating Application Security
If you’re looking to improve your application security, there are several steps we can recommend. By maintaining an up-to-date inventory of all the applications your business uses (including their purpose and whatever access levels there might be), you can have more visibility into your digital environment. Evaluating the security of any vendors is essential, as you must ensure that third-party applications meet your security standards. Regularly updating applications, and patching any vulnerabilities, prevents any threat actors from exploiting them. Finally, developing a clear incident response plan ensures you can take swift action to any incidents, minimising the damage they might cause.
Business applications continue to play a crucial role in modern businesses, and securing their onboarding and integration is more important than ever. By establishing a secure foundation and streamlining processes, you can protect your business from cyber threats, ensure regulatory compliance, and be more productive. Our factory-style approach helps improve your cyber defences and provide peace of mind – something increasingly important in today’s cyber security landscape.
Whatever solution you’re looking for, we can help. The experts at Infosec K2K can offer you specialist guidance, and help you find the product that’s the best fit for you.
Get in touch with us to find out more about how we can help you.