Introduction
A Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution is a software platform that collects, correlates, and analyses security events from various sources to help organisations identify and respond to security incidents, meet compliance requirements, and improve their overall security posture. By using SIEM solutions, organisations can reduce the risk of data breaches, enhance operational efficiency through task automation, and gain better visibility into their security environment for identifying vulnerabilities and implementing appropriate security controls.
According to the "2019 SIEM Survey Report" from AlienVault, 76% of cybersecurity professionals reported that SIEM tools reduced security breaches. The 2021 SIEM Survey Report by Core Security found that 74% of IT security professionals consider SIEM very to extremely important for their organisation's security, with 80% rating their SIEM as effective in identifying and remediating cybersecurity threats. (Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/siem-light-researches-surveys-andpolls-ertugrul-akbas/)
IBM QRadar Suite is a comprehensive security information and event management solution developed by IBM. It is designed to help organisations monitor and analyse their IT infrastructure for potential security threats and incidents. QRadar provides advanced capabilities for threat detection, incident response, and compliance management.
SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) (More details: https://www.sap.com/india/products/technology-platform.html) and IBM QRadar Suite integration can enhance security operations by providing real-time monitoring, detection, and response to security threats. QRadar is a SIEM solution that collects and analyses security events from various sources to detect and alert on potential security incidents. SAP is a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that is used by many organisations to manage their business processes.
To integrate SAP and QRadar, organizations can use SAP's logging framework to collect security events from the SAP system and send them to QRadar using the Syslog protocol. QRadar can then analyze these events and generate alerts and reports based on predefined rules and policies.
Overall, integrating SAP and QRadar can help organisations improve their security posture by providing real-time visibility, advanced threat detection, compliance monitoring, and centralised management of security incidents.
Enhanced Security: A Seamless ERP Solution with the Synergy of SAP BTP and IBM QRadar Suite
IBM QRadar Suite provides organisations with a centralised platform for managing security events and incidents across their SAP and non-SAP systems. SAP BTP is a cloud-based platform that provides a range of services and tools for building and running business applications. Below is an overview architecture of how IBM QRadar Suite and SAP BTP are integrated.
The integrated architecture showcases the harmonious connection of SAP S4 HANA, SAP BTP, and IBM QRadar Suite. While S4 HANA houses the front-end applications and databases, it can be on-premise, hybrid, or cloud-based. SAP BTP serves as a comprehensive platform for deploying SAP and non-SAP applications. By transferring all application logs and audit logs from SAP BTP to QRadar, this seamless integration allows for detailed log analysis and orchestration within QRadar's interface.
By integrating QRadar with SAP BTP, organisations can gain real-time visibility into security events and incidents across their SAP and non-SAP systems. This allows security teams to identify and respond to security threats quickly and efficiently, reducing the risk of security breaches and data loss.
To integrate QRadar with SAP BTP, organisations can use SAP's Cloud Connector to securely connect QRadar to their SAP systems. QRadar can then collect and analyse security events and logs from SAP and non-SAP systems, providing real-time visibility into security incidents.
SAP also provide “Audit Log Viewer” (More details: https://help.sap.com/docs/btp/sap-business-technology-platform/audit-log-viewer-for-cloud-foundry-environment ) which can help us to see the logs in SAP BTP but not application logs. Apart from that, Categorisation of logs, Centre solution of security and follow up actions can be easily taken from the QRadar.
Representative Scenario
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Let’s explore a real life scenario, John Doe was a former employee of the company who had access to the administrators role collection.
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However, he was no longer employed by the company and no longer needed access to this role collection.
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The company's security team decided to delete John Doe from the role collection to ensure that he no longer had access to sensitive data.
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The security team member who performed the deletion was named Admin. Admin had the appropriate permissions to manage role collections, so he was able to successfully delete John Doe from the administrators role collection.
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The deletion of John Doe from the role collection was a necessary security measure to protect the company's data.
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By deleting John Doe from the role collection, the company ensured that he no longer had access to sensitive data.
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As soon as, Admin delete the user from the role collection there will be logs generated in the system. These logs will be available in QRadar for audit and regulatory compliance.
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In an alternate scenario, the deletion action was performed not by the designated Admin, but by an individual named Steve, who also possesses the authorisation to delete. Steve used his personal account instead of his Admin account for this action.
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Consequently, logs of this incident were generated in SAP BTP and forwarded to IBM QRadar Suite, triggering the creation of an offence in accordance with QRadar's categorisation.
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This offence then undergoes orchestration and analysis, resulting in the generation of a case with a series of tasks to be executed as part of an "Auto Playbook" follow-up action.
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These tasks may include notifying relevant stakeholders, immediate user blocking, generating workflows, and more.
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After the successful completion of all of these tasks, the case is closed, ensuring a comprehensive response to security incidents.
Apart from this, these logs can be used for troubleshooting , diagnosing security breaches, tracking system performance, compliance and auditing purpose. Therefore, maintaining a record of system logs is crucial.
Conclusion
Overall, IBM QRadar Suite and SAP BTP integration provides organisations with a powerful platform for managing security events and incidents across their SAP and non-SAP systems. By providing real-time visibility and advanced threat detection capabilities, the solution can help organisations improve their security posture and reduce the risk of security breaches and data loss. For more details on IBM QRadar Suite visit https://www.ibm.com/qradar
For information about IBM Security solutions for SAP, please visit the following blog:
IBM's Comprehensive Security for SAP
To learn more about IBM Security QRadar Suite and SAP BTP, please visit the following resources: