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3 Ways ERP Software Can Improve Your Business’s Security

Today’s small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are striving to safeguard themselves against cybercrimes. Fortunately, implementing a modern cloud ERP solution can significantly ease their concerns.

Implementing ERP Security Throughout Your Organization

Life is full of opposites: hot and cold, up and down, good and evil. It’s this last pair that often challenges us, as something intended for good can be used to cause harm. A prime example of this dichotomy is the increasing reliance on hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) environments, particularly in the form of ERP solutions.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, like many repositories of valuable data, are not immune to cyberattacks. Last year, McKinsey Digital highlighted a 2018 report by two reputable research firms in collaboration with CISA/DHS, focusing on the specific cyber threats to ERP systems. This report was updated by CISA/DHS in April 2021.

Originally, the report aimed to raise awareness of the rising cyber threats to ERP systems. Now, its purpose is even more critical: to emphasize the ongoing efforts by cyber threat actors to target hosted ERP systems.

Why have ERP systems become a prime target for cyberattacks? The answer lies in the distinction between onsite (internal) ERP operations and SaaS-hosted systems. When a solution containing valuable data is internet-facing, such as an ERP system, the cyber threat level increases by 300%.

So, how can the security of a hosted SaaS ERP solution be assured?

Harnessing the Power of Enterprise-Level Security

The principle of opposites proves beneficial in the realm of technology. Cloud-based ERP solutions can effectively counteract widespread and damaging cyberattacks. An ERP system enhances business security with robust cloud ERP security features, eliminating the need for costly investments in new hardware or the expansion of security and IT teams.

Cloud ERP solutions are hosted in the software vendor’s own data centers or in third-party facilities like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. It is the vendor, not the customer, who is responsible for maintaining, updating, and securing the software. Vendors take these responsibilities seriously, as their reputations depend on their ability to meet stringent standards and ensure data security for their customers. They handle system maintenance (e.g., regular updates), control access to the equipment, protect against environmental hazards and disasters, and detect and prevent cyberattacks.

This extensive, enterprise-level protection offers significant peace of mind. However, the security advantages of modern cloud ERP software extend even further. Here are three additional ways a cloud ERP solution can enhance your business’s security.

1. Securing Your Business by Reducing Operational Inefficiencies

A cloud ERP solution connects every department in your business, ensuring data from each team is collected, synchronized, and stored in a centralized system. This data is updated in real time and is instantly accessible to every authorized employee. The ERP software also provides tools to analyze that data and make fact-based decisions. These decisions help optimize workflows and procedures, eliminating operational inefficiencies that could hinder your ability to adapt to changes in business processes or respond to cyberattacks.

2. Improving Security with Expanded Visibility

A cloud ERP solution offers end-to-end monitoring of your data environment, providing a comprehensive view of your business and exposing vulnerabilities that might otherwise go undetected. Real-time alerts and pattern recognition warn your teams of potential or actual breaches, allowing quick action to prevent or contain them.

3. Empowering Your Teams to Combat Cybercrime

While technology is crucial in the fight against cybercrime, educating your employees on cybersecurity is equally important. Despite the robust security provided by an ERP system and its vendor, your team must be trained to recognize and respond to threats.

ERP Advisors Group outlines specific steps cybercriminals take to breach your security measures, including:

  1. Testing
  2. Setting up the bait
  3. Using fear and curiosity
  4. Getting inside
  5. Preparing for the attack
  6. Attacking from all sides
  7. Making demands


Understanding these steps and keeping your employees informed strengthens your ERP security protocols. Vigilance is also essential. As ERP Advisors notes, “Enterprise security needs to happen all the time. It needs to become a part of your company’s culture, a part of who your employees are when they are in the office, as well as outside the office as part of their normal day-to-day activities. Only with constant vigilance do we have a hope to keep our systems safe from attack.”

How Acumatica Can Help

Combining your employees’ efforts with the right cloud ERP system ensures your business effectively combats ongoing, devious, and ever-evolving cyberattacks. At Acumatica, we’re dedicated to protecting your business. Along with leveraging the robust security features of AWS, we offer valuable security measures, including:

  • Restricting user logins to specific IP addresses.
  • Controlling user access by assigning unique security credentials and enforcing role-based data access.
  • Providing a variety of password protection measures (e.g., prompts to change passwords, password complexity requirements, and unique, multi-factor identification options).
  • Supplying built-in redundancy in case of a natural disaster or a large network outage.
  • Storing Acumatica subscriber data in separate databases and ensuring that all customer workstations are completely segmented.
  • Providing an Acumatica URL protected by ICANN DNSSEC standards.
  • Using Acumatica’s Advanced Web Application Firewall solution (WAF).
  • Applying enterprise-class MDR services to the SaaS environments to proactively prevent malicious cyber threats.
  • Supporting and complying with GDPR and other regulatory requirements.
  • Offering 24/7/365 monitoring from a highly trained security operations center.

If your business is not protected by a comprehensive cloud ERP solution, it’s time to learn more about ERP security and discover why Acumatica is the best system for the job. Contact our experts to set up a demonstration today.

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