Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is applied across various industries, sectors, and, at a more granular level, individual departments within an organization. Cybersecurity, meanwhile, is an essential element of a well-functioning company that customers can trust. Today, no one can afford to neglect data protection, as cybercrime is evolving at a surprising pace and can seriously harm an organization’s interests. What happens when we combine these two areas—robotic process automation and maintaining a high level of cybersecurity? What is Robotic Process Automation?
Let’s take a closer look at process automation. Despite the significant benefits that implementing RPA brings, it is very simple to deploy—it does not require major modifications to existing, active systems. However, a prior analysis of the organization and sound business decision-making are important, as some areas may not be as suitable for robotization and automation as others—which is why it is a good idea to
seek advice from a consultant who can determine where RPA will actually be useful and where it can significantly improve our work. Robotic Process Automation means handing over repetitive and non-creative employee tasks to a robot. This relieves the human, whose time and attention can be directed elsewhere—to areas more in need of a human approach and critical thinking skills. A robot taking over more monotonous and simpler tasks allows for faster implementation of new processes, works 24/7, and does not require breaks or human supervision, while simultaneously significantly reducing the number of errors made.
According to analyses, thanks to this solution, we can save up to 65% of time, and a well-implemented RPA makes 95% fewer errors in processes than a human worker. This also translates into financial benefits. Examples of robotization in business include processing information and responding to it—performing calculations, filling in data in systems (such as ERP), automatic messaging (reminders or offers), updating reports, debt collection, payment processing… There are truly many options—we write about them in detail in our
RPA Inspiration Catalog.
What is cybersecurity?
There is no denying that in recent years, maintaining cybersecurity has become one of the most important activities in organizations that operate on an increasing amount of data—not only their own but also that of the customers using their services. This is required not only by the aforementioned customers, who include appropriate clauses in contracts, but also by legal regulations. Cybersecurity (also called IT security) involves the active and conscious protection of systems connected to the internet—networks, software, hardware, and, above all, the data stored there—against threats from cybercriminals and hackers. Security specialists analyze and assess risks associated with using websites, programs, computers, and more, and eliminate these risks on an ongoing basis. A very important aspect of cybersecurity in an organization is educating employees. Humans are always the weakest link in this unequal battle—our systems can be perfectly protected, but it only takes one person to, for example, leave a company computer open in a public place or save a simple password in their browser, and hackers gain easy access to all data. With this in mind, in this article, we list
the most important security rules that company employees should follow. If we want to see how secure our systems are, we can, for example, use the services of a “paid hacker,” or a pentester. Pentesting is the practice of checking security by overcoming it and “breaking into” the system, just as a hacker would. Through these actions, a Security specialist discovers potential weaknesses and security gaps and provides the opportunity to fix them, which closes the door to real cybercriminals.
Robotization in cybersecurity – what will change?
Robotic Process Automation in cybersecurity can handle repetitive tasks, just as it does in other departments of an organization. As we mentioned, humans and the mistakes they make are often the greatest threat to our data—which is why handing over some responsibility to the “hands” of a robot means fewer errors and, therefore, greater security. We are talking here, for example, about misconfigured networks or settings on employee computers, unauthorized access to data, or the need to identify breaches and “gaps” in systems. RPA is capable of spotting such threats in fractions of a second and reacting immediately in the appropriate way, even before human specialists address the threat, or by completely relieving them of the task. In large organizations, it happens that legacy systems that are several (or more) years old are connected to newer ones (because it is faster than migrating to a new system or rewriting everything from scratch), which causes serious security gaps. This opens up great opportunities for cybercriminals who specialize in discovering such weak points and infiltrating internal company resources. Robotic Process Automation is able to integrate older systems with newer ones in a more secure way, eliminating some of the threats. Taking all this into account, RPA and cybersecurity automation mitigate risk, protect and support the maintenance of a high level of security in the company, and significantly speed up the response time to emerging cyber threats. What applications can robotization have in cybersecurity
What risks does robotization pose to cybersecurity?
Of course, RPA can also become a target for a hacker attack. Robots work on sensitive data and have access to company and employee resources, transferring key information between systems—they are therefore very vulnerable to becoming an object of unwanted interest from outside the organization. The benefits of robotization in cybersecurity that we mentioned in the previous subsection may prove disastrous for us if we do not implement an appropriate level of security when deploying robots and their work. We must do this wisely and keep cybersecurity principles in mind. Every bot and process should have its own individual ID assigned. We also cannot leave RPA to its own devices; we must control and monitor the actions that bots perform for us. Conducting regular internal audits and the aforementioned penetration tests (pentesting) are very good practices that we must remember.
What does the future look like?
We cannot imagine a future without the internet. Consequently, the digital transformation of organizations will only continue to accelerate, which means an increasing threat from cybercriminals. The answer to these dangers is
maintaining cybersecurity and following rules that are becoming more and more restrictive, but necessary if we do not want to lose our data or the data of our customers who entrust it to us. Humans have their limitations, so the next natural step is the increased use of process automation in cybersecurity areas—however, let us remember that this also entails the need to protect the RPA robots themselves.
