Enterprises in the digital transformation journey are adding more systems, technology and networks to equip themselves with the changing world. Introduction of more devices and touchpoints increase additional entry points for malicious factors to exploit vulnerabilities. While digital transformation brings immense benefits and helps companies meet their business goals, it also elevates the risk of threats and the need for enhancing cybersecurity.

Human error is the Achilles’ heel of cybersecurity. With remote work, cybersecurity incidents have seen a sharp rise with incidents like employees having weak passwords, accidentally downloading malware are some common examples. According to statistics, man-made errors is an organization’s biggest cyber vulnerability with the global average at 58%. A 2023 IBM survey says the average cost of data breach is estimated to be $4.45million; this is a 15% increase compared to the past three years. Cyber criminals regularly target human employees; with 20% of breaches accounted to compromised credentials and 17% for phishing attempts.

The need for managing cybersecurity with RPA has never been greater. Digital transformation robotic process automation minimizes manual management while maximizing security and reducing risk. By using intelligent automation, enterprises get 24/7 digital vigilance, can identify and strengthen vulnerabilities, protect data and instantly shut down cyber-attacks. Digital transformation and process automation safeguards your employees, customers, interests and reputation. Organizations who use AI and automation for security see an average savings of $1.76million compared to those who do not.

What are some of the use cases of RPA in cybersecurity?

Cut response time: When you are under attack from cyber criminals, your response time to shutting down the threat is absolutely critical to loss recovery. The quicker the potential threats are neutralized, the healthier it is for an organization. With manual work, it may take time to realize that security systems have been compromised and for IT teams to take action; but with RPA-powered bots, you can shut down breaches instantly. It immediately alerts the IT team to severe threats and helps build stricter security controls. Bots use intelligent automation to learn how to respond to these threats, then automate the prevention procedures.

Prevent data loss: As enterprises add new tech stack to improve their services, they also need to take a look at data loss and ensure data flows from legacy systems to new ones effectively without any compromise. RPA aids in automating the discovery and classification of sensitive data and their access control; ruling out the possibility of manual error, improving compliance by 92% and running with perfect accuracy. RPA-powered bots can be programmed to monitor data flow and when anomalies are detected, they can deploy security measures to prevent any leak and unauthorized access.

Threat analysis: RPA delivers 24/7 digital vigilance and real-time threat intelligence. Bots can detect anomalies, discover and classify potential threats, report suspicious activity and mitigate risks proactively. It deploys robust authentication mechanisms, secure communication protocols and encryption techniques to safeguard systems and remote workspace. RPA can automate vulnerability assessments, software and security measure updates and remediate weak points.

Regulating access control: By integrating RPA into your enterprise’s workflow, you can minimize the number of users with privileged access to your systems. Automated workspaces remove the need for repetitive tasks that require more logins and helps manage risks better. With intelligent automation digital transformation you get 100% accurate activity logging that logs human and bot actions to create an audit trail and streamlines compliance. RPA can help adopt a zero-trust security architecture, where no user or system can be trusted and every access request is verified with RPA-powered multi-factor authentication process. Implementing access control is critical to prevent unauthorized logins and data leak. RPA can also help HR departments stay vigilant against identity fraud by securing access control.

Driving better business results: RPA can perform routine tasks with speed, accuracy and consistency; the qualities highly needed to maintain a secure environment. By automating your cybersecurity with RPA, you reduce business setbacks with regard to performance, compliance and data loss; thereby, enabling your team to focus on driving business objectives to the finish line faster. Your IT teams can focus on higher order tasks and establish robust customer service. With RPA digital transformation, you also gain the advantage of time, resource optimization and a resilient cybersecurity environment.

An IBM survey states that 51% of enterprises plan to increase their automation security investments in 2023. Cyber incidents can bring down organizations of any size to its knees nearly overnight and many do not want to take chance when it comes to security. RPA can be used across functions to speed up processes and deliver better business outcomes, but enterprises are really appreciating RPA’s role in cybersecurity because it is a highly beneficial investment that protects their other investments.

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