Security breaches increasingly affect businesses of all kinds—are you prepared? Learn how to implement the latest security features built into OpenEdge.
It’s tempting to dismiss security concerns by imagining that your business is not a target for would-be attackers. However, even as high-profile breaches garner headline after headline, data shows smaller companies are being actively targeted as well. No matter what size your business is or what industry you operate in, you can’t afford to neglect your security in 2018.
Not only is there obvious potential for financial loss, but a security breach puts the reputation of your company at risk. Your brand and your image will be tarnished and it’ll take hard work to win back the trust of your customers, let alone gain new ones. You don’t want to be the company known for losing the personal information of your users because of lax security policies.
Constructing a Holistic Security Plan
There are several key steps required to develop a security plan that is comprehensive and well thought out. The process begins with visualizing all the systems in your enterprise and mapping out every device, path and network, examining the touch points between them and how data travels back and forth. Then you must assess these points and determine areas of risk.
Often, the most prized asset for an organization is the database, which makes database security an excellent place to focus on. Proper identity management as well as a sufficient level of data encryption must be enabled, both for data at rest and in motion. This should be followed by effective monitoring of your database, a system of notifications when suspicious activity is detected, and a plan for how to respond.
Shore up Your Security Gaps
The above is just an overview of the process you will need, but once you have implemented it the gaps in your security configuration will be revealed. The critical step is to shore up these gaps once you have identified them.
Often you can simply turn on functionality that you may not have been aware of, while other steps may require more active monitoring of logs or other data. In other cases you may be optimally using the software you have, but it is no longer up to date and so does not include the latest security standards. In that case, updating your software will be the best path to improving your security.
Get the Latest Security Features with OpenEdge
At Progress, our goal is to deliver agile solutions that enable you to embrace change and turn it into a competitive advantage. We are dedicated to providing you with the support you need to succeed in a rapidly changing security environment. OpenEdge 11.7 utilizes the latest security technologies and standards to protect your data and help you minimize the risk of an attack.
You can learn more about OpenEdge security in our on-demand security primer. If you want to minimize security vulnerabilities that may be identified within your OpenEdge application, consider the OpenEdge Security Health Check. OpenEdge 11.7 is packed with new features, from performance to user experience to security. Curious about what OpenEdge 11.7 has to offer? Check out the top 5 reasons to upgrade to OpenEdge 11.7.
Watch the Security PrimerChad Thomson
Chad Thomson has focused his career solely on technology and the pursuit of unique, creative solutions to challenging software problems. He has been a Senior Principal Solutions Consultant in the Progress Services organization for the last 17 years. With broad technical knowledge, favoring reality over formality, he specializes in vendor-neutral, cross-platform application and service integration. Occasionally, he can be found standing atop his soap-box evangelizing OpenEdge and related technologies to willing audiences.