Daniele Mancini, Field CISO, Fortinet
Credential management systems for RPA deployments presents attractive targets for attackers as they could gain access to multiple systems through authenticated sessions while their traffic appears legitimate.
Exploiting Cross-Organisational Trust
The trust relationships that form between systems become vulnerable to attacks from adversaries. A typical supply chain attack occurs when unauthorised parties access less secure RPA environments of suppliers to use automated data transfer for malware distribution and data contamination. The system will accept malicious code and fake data through automated transactions which appear as legitimate partner communications.
Amplified Impact in Just-in-Time Environments
The fast pace of modern supply chains operating with just-in-time delivery makes security incidents from RPA systems produce more severe effects, including:
• Procurement operations inventory management manipulation and the potential spread of fraudulent orders and incorrect shipments and manipulated prices throughout the system
• A successful attack on supply chain RPA infrastructure results in consequences that go beyond the initial data breach. The business faces multiple severe impacts which include operational disruptions, financial losses and strategic damage that endanger its future sustainability
Strategic Espionage and Reputational Damage
The instant financial harm from RPA system breaches makes them an appealing target for industrial espionage activities. APT actors use the permanent privileged access of bots to execute extended surveillance operations and steal competitive intelligence.
Major supply chain security incidents result in severe damage to a company’ s reputation. The practice of cybersecurity due diligence within vendor risk management has become mandatory, which makes a company’ s security position determine its power to draw and keep both customers and suppliers.
A Multi-Layered Defence: Technology Mitigation Framework
A complete technology mitigation strategy needs to handle all these intricate security threats. The framework depends on security architecture and operational controls and continuous monitoring for its foundation.
1. Implement the Principle of Least Privilege( PoLP) – Each bot in RPA security operates with restricted access to perform only its assigned tasks by accessing specific systems and data and functions. Organisations can stop a compromised bot from spreading by using Role-Based Access Controls( RBAC) to block its network access to other systems.
2. Harden Credential Management – Bot credentials must be treated as highly privileged assets. Best practices include implementation of Privileged Access Management( PAM) solution for that centralises and automates bot credential management, prevention of direct storage of passwords and API keys and an MFA requirement for bot accounts accessing vital systems.
3. Establish Continuous Monitoring and Anomaly Detection – Improving visibility across the system is key. This includes creating operational baselines which track how each bot functions by recording its system access patterns and usage times and data processing amounts, analysing all data access patterns, external communications and off-hours activities which deviate from the established baseline and the integration of RPA platform logs with Security Information and Event Management( SIEM) systems for a single incident response workflow.
4. Architecture for Security with Network Segmentation – RPA infrastructure should not reside on the general corporate network. On the contrary, the system needs its own separate network area which includes defined security zones that use strong firewall rules to monitor all network communications and use application-layer firewalls and API gateways to block dangerous direct database connections which bypass other security controls by performing complete traffic analysis of bot system interactions.
Fortifying the Chain: Supply Chain-Specific Security Measures
Supply chain RPA functions between different organisations so internal security measures prove insufficient for protection. Security needs to
26 WWW. INTELLIGENTCISO. COM