Strengthen Security with RPA
Cyberattacks are one major threat enterprises face in the digital era – a threat that not only has deleterious effects on the companies themselves, but also their users and clients. A small data leak would be enough to cause a substantial loss of customers and adversely impact customer loyalty. After all, cybersecurity is considered to be of pivotal importance to consumers who are often faced with the decision of entrusting their personal data to an external organization. The security measures a company has in place to guard itself against cyberattacks can be a crucial factor in determining whether or not a customer chooses to use its services. Interestingly, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a digital solution that has the added benefit of minimizing cyber-security risks – this unique advantage is just one of many reasons why enterprises around the globe are adopting RPA to counter the increasing threat of cyber-attacks.
Rise of Ransomware
A common type of malware, which also happens to be one that is highly feared, is ransomware. It hijacks systems or data and denies access to them while demanding a certain fee to be paid for their release. In some cases, the cybercriminal encrypts specific important files, and in other cases, the attacker restricts access to the entire system. Payment must often be made in cryptocurrency to reduce the possibility of the attacker being identified.
While this threat has long existed, it has evolved over time to become more advanced with sophisticated tactics and methods to extort money from individuals, and more commonly, companies.
In 2017, the UK's National Health Service (NHS) was heavily disrupted when it was infected by a ransomware known as 'WannaCry'. During the WannaCry Outbreak, over 200,000 companies were infected, which led to a surge in cancellations of appointments and medical visits. This ransomware enters the system by tricking users to open links or attachments in emails or other sources. An innocent click ultimately cost NHS £92 million and, worst of all, left many people who were in need of urgent care without help.
WannaCry is just one example of ransomware that has caused a major disruption to businesses worldwide, however, there are many others and more are emerging as hackers prey on naive users' willingness to carelessly click on malicious links or open one tempting attachment.
But who actually opens risky and unfamiliar links? A human employee.
RPA bots will not perform any actions that they have not been programmed for, including clicking on questionable links. Enviably, there are immune to the very things that we fall prey to -- RPA bots are not curious nor reckless, and are significantly less likely to fall victim to such attacks. Moreover, RPA bots can prove to be invaluable in the event an employee does make the mistake of opening a harmful link. RPA bots can speedily respond to an anti-virus alert and prevent the spread of viruses across the network at a quicker pace than humans. An RPA bot can conduct a quick analysis of the threats and identify the most relevant data to allow it to make decisions on how to further address the threats. For example, a certain user's access to data could be remotely disabled.
Restrict unauthorized access
RPA robots can ensure that only specific members with the correct credentials have access to sensitive data in the company system. An RPA bot can prevent unauthorized users from managing sensitive and private data, which would consequently limit the risk of hacker attacks. Furthermore, RPA bots can create an additional encryption layer to facilitate more secure data usage to shield against any attacks from external sources.
Improve data safety
RPA bots can helpfully create backup copies of core processes in the event of a system malfunction. When there's a system crash, RPA can easily back-up data to minimize disruption to the business and allow the company to operate smoothly.
RPA can also record every action in a log, which is helpful in industries such as banking, finance, and IT as these industries require audit trails. With RPA, each click and data entry is logged and allows for more precise analysis and identification of threats.
Assist cybersecurity department
RPA perfectly complements the cybersecurity department where many of the staff may be occupied with high-value assignments and can easily allocate low-value tasks to RPA bots. The bots can effortlessly generate weekly or monthly reports that identify any security risks, system vulnerabilities or suspicious activity. Unlike human employees, RPA bots can monitor company activity 24/7 without experiencing fatigue or exhaustion, and therefore, can address security challenges at any time.
Conclusion
RPA bots effectively combat threats through automated detection, alert notification, and fast response time. What's more is that since RPA bots can operate 24/7, they boost security through continuously monitoring company activity, automatically installing system updates, and allowing cybersecurity professionals to focus on more complex, high-value tasks.
About Laiye
Founded in 2015, Laiye helps businesses achieve more, reach their full potential, and transform into smarter, more effective, efficient, productive enterprises. Laiye helps businesses and people realize their full potential by optimizing the human-machine collaborative alliance with sophisticated, dynamic, productivity-enhancing digital “workforce solutions”. Laiye delivers the deepest, most advanced AI/RPA/NLP solutions to help businesses become more efficient, effective, agile, and successful. And it frees people to focus on meaningful, innovative, mission-critical initiatives.
Core technologies include robotic process automation (RPA), process mining, natural language processing (NLP), conversational intelligence, text recognition, and image recognition.
