RPA deals typically with a lot of confidential business data. RPA’s software robots process information from numerous company databases and log into different accounts using supplied credentials to automate daily business tasks like transferring files, processing orders, and conducting payroll. In this approach, the automation platform has access to a company’s employees, customers, and vendors’ information (inventory lists, passwords, and so on).
RPA credentials are commonly exchanged to reuse them. Because these accounts and credentials are left unmodified and unsecured, a cyber attacker can grab them, use them to escalate privileges, and move quickly to get access to critical systems, applications, and data. Administrators, on the other hand, can extract credentials from vulnerable sites because many businesses that use RPA have many bots in production at any given moment, the risk is very significant.
Using this checklist recommended by Dr. Jagreet Kaur Gill to ensure the security of your RPA system should be beneficial:
- For bot access, always use a secure authentication mechanism.
- Create a central password vault to store the credentials of all bots in your organization and make sure it’s encrypted.
- Each bot requires its own set of login credentials.
- After removing a bot from production, do not leave any sensitive credentials on it.
- Use two-factor authentication for administrative accounts to offer an extra degree of security to your RPA system.
- Limit sensitive information access to only those who require it, and review user permissions regularly to ensure that they still have the necessary access.
- Use multifactor authentication to limit access to the RPA system to lawful users who have authentications (2FA).
