Appsian securing mobile_ess_solution_brief

Exposing PeopleSoft Self-Service
Applications to the Internet
Best Practices for Maintaining Security
SOLUTION BRIEF

User engagement relies greatly on the ease of accessing information, the flexibility in
fulfilling transactions, and the time taken in the process. To continue delivering efficiency
for the modern workforce, Oracle has introduced the Fluid UI – a strategic step towards
upgrading the PeopleSoft user experience by making transactions mobile-friendly. The
Fluid page rollout is focused on enabling transactions that make the most sense for
PeopleSoft customers/users. Self-service modules like benefits enrollment, time entry,
approvals, student self-service, etc. have been prioritized so that users can fulfill tasks
on their own time 1) without depending on access to a desktop computer or 2) having to
divert time and focus from their primary responsibilities.
Despite the benefits of mobilizing and opening applications for remote access, security
ramifications are a major concern of most PeopleSoft customers. Rightfully so, since
PeopleSoft applications house your organization’s most sensitive data including PII
of students, employees, vendors and even job applicants. Expansion of access to
sensitive data beyond a secure network perimeter also increases the risk of threats and
more successful breaches. The proliferation of user-centric threats adds to the risk, as
hackers increasingly target individual users and devices - leveraging the human-error
factor to their advantage.
So how do organizations maintain strict data security policies when access to
PeopleSoft is available outside a secure corporate network? In this solution brief, we
will discuss how organizations can achieve a secure remote access environment for
PeopleSoft - using contextual access controls and fine-grained data security features.
Abstract
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Exposing PeopleSoft Self-Service Applications to the Internet
SOLUTION BRIEF

The Evolution Of The Threat Landscape
As enterprise applications are exposed to the public internet, organizations are
experiencing a shift in their threat landscape. More and more successful enterprise data
breaches are originating from the application level (accessed with valid credentials),
completely circumventing the secure corporate networks that organizations rely on to
keep sensitive data safe.
• Recently there’s been a huge influx of phishing attacks. Despite training and
awareness programs, employees continue to fall for phishing attacks. According to
the 2019 State of the Phish report, 83% of global security respondents experienced
phishing attacks in 2018, up from 76% in 2017.
• In last two years the average number of incidents involving malicious insiders
increased by 53% and 2019 is predicted to be the costliest year to date when it comes
to malicious insider threats.
• Black Hat’s Hacker Survey Report found that 73% of hackers say that traditional
perimeter security firewalls and antivirus software are irrelevant or obsolete, and 85%
of hackers named humans as most responsible for security breaches.
It is evident that the focus of cybercrime has shifted from the network to end-users.
Therefore, expanding access only increases the attack surface for cybercriminals and
malicious insiders to exploit.
Exposing PeopleSoft Self-Service Applications to the Internet 3
SOLUTION BRIEF
As threats evolve organizations must improve their security posture. In addition to
refining policies and procedures, new age security solutions such as contextual access
control and fine-grained data security can significantly reduce the probability of user-
centric breaches. By enforcing additional authentication measures, improving access
controls, and gaining visibility into user actions, organizations can confidently roll out
self-service functionality knowing that their PeopleSoft applications are secure.
Best Practices And Recommendations
Evaluate required security upgrades
Expanding access for PeopleSoft self-service applications can have a great impact on
workforce productivity, talent retention, and user satisfaction. As a result, organizations
might be encouraged to fast-track an ESS rollout project. However, it is essential to
evaluate the security concerns associated with remote access beforehand. An analysis
of threat vectors, business needs, regulations, and the sensitivity level of your data
assets is a vital step to achieving a secure PeopleSoft environment. To truly benefit from
mobile and remote access capabilities, it is important that organizations evaluate the
risks and strike a balance between convenience and data security.

SOLUTION BRIEF
Strengthen identity management
Enhance ERP access controls
Mask sensitive data fields
With the rise in credential compromise caused by social engineering attacks and
poor password management, PeopleSoft’s primary security model of Username &
Password authentication is no longer an effective method on its own. It is important
that organizations prioritize the use of an additional layer of identity authentication to
validate access, especially from outside a secure corporate network. Organizations can
implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) challenges to reduce successful access
attempts in case valid user-credentials are compromised. In fact, according to the Black
Hat hacker survey report, MFA has been considered as the top most ‘tough to beat’
feature by hackers.
Deploying PeopleSoft self-service often includes expanding access to the public
internet. By allowing access outside a secure corporate network, organizations expose
themselves to new risks posed by cybercriminals and insiders alike. Equipping
PeopleSoft with contextual access controls allow organizations to better align to the
principal of least privilege, in turn, eliminating unnecessary privileges and drastically
reducing user-centric risk. To reduce your remote attack surface, it is essential that
organizations set restrictions and only allow bare minimum access for specific low-risk
transactions.
Data masking is a best practice for protecting sensitive data fields such as social
security numbers, direct deposit information, patient ids and more from unnecessary
exposure. By hiding records partially or fully, organizations can significantly reduce
the risk of data theft. In the interest of added security, organizations must implement
dynamic data masking governed by contextual information, so that even valid users are
unable to access sensitive data remotely on personal devices.
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Build deep visibility into user activity
Poor password practices negatively impact productivity and security
efforts
- No native SAML support
Limitations of front door MFA
In the context of self-service, organizations are opening themselves up to an entirely
new scope of access. Rather than all activity coming from a single, trusted corporate
network and uniform set of corporate devices, users are now accessing your sensitive
PeopleSoft applications from thousands of unfamiliar end-points. This venture into
the unknown requires deep visibility into user activity to be able to detect suspicious
access. Additionally, building the capability to monitor, track and record user-actions on
a granular level, along with the context of activity, organizations can facilitate logs for
audits and regulatory reporting and allow security teams to discover, investigate, and
respond to suspicious transactions promptly.
Out-of-the-box, PeopleSoft’s native authentication is username and password based
and does not enforce strong password policies. With multiple enterprise applications
to access, employees tend to set up easy to remember passwords that are also easy
to crack. To avoid the use of weak passwords, IT teams enforce mandates around
setting up strong passwords which are difficult to remember, which leads to recurring
password reset requests. Frequent password reset requests can result in users delaying
or abandoning administrative transactions - defeating the purpose of making self-
service mobile and available remotely.
Organizations can rectify this by establishing a centralized authentication system
or a Single Sign-on (SSO). However, PeopleSoft applications lack native SAML
support - the widely accepted identity federation standard. As a result, PeopleSoft
applications cannot connect with SAML supporting ID providers and are likely to
be alienated from other enterprise applications. Most off-the-shelf SSO providers
are unaware of this limitation and suggest custom development when faced
with the roadblock during implementation/testing. A custom development is
costly and time-consuming as it requires specialized knowledge, extensive
development, and often the purchase of additional hardware.
Most off-the-shelf MFA solutions are limited to login level only. While front-door MFA
challenges can be effective in keeping malicious hackers out of PeopleSoft applications,
they pose several constraints, i.e. lack of security against insider threats, and decreased
employee productivity.
5
SOLUTION BRIEF
Challenges

While a login level MFA can protect your applications against external bad-actors,
a malicious insider with the ability to successfully pass these challenges can
still access, download, distribute, and potentially misuse PII for personal gains.
Therefore, to fully leverage the benefits of MFA it is essential to extend the
functionality to field, page and component levels.
To enforce MFA challenges for high-risk transactions, organizations need to
tie authentication policies with contextual information. However, traditional
MFA solutions cannot integrate with PeopleSoft’s underlying rules. As a result,
organizations are left with rigid rulesets and limited ability to configure MFA
policies that meet their employees’ and business’ unique needs.
The added disruption of recurring MFA challenges at login can avert users
and impact engagement rates. Frequent MFA challenges can force users to
avoid self-service transactions resulting in low engagement with critical HR/
administrative initiatives - eventually defeating the purpose of opening self-
service for remote access. Since most self-service transactions are low-risk,
organizations must focus on protecting high-risk transactions and sensitive
fields.
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- Login level MFA is ineffective for insider threats
- Rigid rulesets
- MFA fatigue impacts user engagement
SOLUTION BRIEF

7
Static access control
Limitations of native data masking
Logging capabilities are not user-centric
SOLUTION BRIEF
PeopleSoft allows organizations to implement access controls based on static rules.
User-roles or permission lists govern these restrictions, thereby allowing users to
access all the sensitive information or nothing at all. With increased access from
outside a secure network, organizations need more flexibility to control what users can
access based on contextual information such as the location of access, user-privilege
and more. For example - high-risk transactions such as financials, payroll, etc. must be
blocked for external access despite the privilege level of a user.
PeopleSoft’s existing data masking functionality is limited to Bank Account Number,
Date of Birth and National ID. The native masking also depends on static, role-based
rules; therefore, users who have the privilege to view sensitive data can view it all, no
matter where they are accessing the application from. As a result, sensitive data fields
are vulnerable to exposure if privilege user credentials are stolen or when privileged
users download data on personal/home computers using queries. To ensure that data
masking is effective for remote access, masking rules need to be contextually aware
of where access is coming from and dynamically applied (inside or outside a secure
corporate network).
Out-of-the-box, PeopleSoft offers high-level logging designed primarily for debugging
and troubleshooting. These logs do not provide information on what data was accessed
or any details on the context of access such as who obtained it, when, or from where.
However, with the rise in user-centric threats, contextual information tied to user
activity logging becomes instrumental in monitoring, reporting, and incident response –
especially when the scope of access is expanded beyond a secure network firewall.
Appsian’s Application Security Platform (ASP) addresses end-to-end PeopleSoft
security requirements that come with the expansion of access. Uniquely designed for
PeopleSoft, ASP provides security features that are contextually aware and deploys
defenses based on user privilege, business requirements, and the sensitive nature of
the data/transactions. ASP plugs into your PeopleSoft web server and enhances the
security of your applications, without impacting user experience or requiring additional
customization efforts and hardware.
Solution

SOLUTION BRIEF
Dynamic Access Controls
Contextual MFA with field-level data protection
ASP allows customers to establish dynamic access controls based on contextual
attributes such as the location of access, IP address, user privilege and nature of a
transaction. Customers can set restrictions for specific modules or transactions, or
prompt users with MFA-gated checkpoints when an access attempt is made from
outside a secure corporate network. Organizations can also entirely block high-risk
transactions from remote locations while still allowing access to low-risk transactions
such as benefits enrollment, time-entry, expenses, approvals and more.
Appsian’s MFA solution allows organizations to enforce identity challenges at the field,
page, and component levels in PeopleSoft. It is the only solution of its kind that enables
IT teams to create contextual rules based on PeopleSoft artifacts and user attributes
such as user id, location, IP address, privileges, data sensitivity and more. With ASP’s
contextual MFA in place, users can be challenged to reconfirm their identity (using a
voice call, OTP, or push notifications) when attempting to view sensitive records or
perform high-risk transactions.
By using the context of access to enforce MFA challenges, ASP matches the level of
risk to the appropriate level of security. This approach maintains robust security while
avoiding arbitrary security measures that plague user productivity and engagement. For
example, enforcing more robust MFA policies when a user is requesting access from a
coffee shop versus at the office.
8

9
Dynamic Data Masking
Single Sign-On
Logging and Analytics
SOLUTION BRIEF
ASP allows organizations to enforce dynamic data masking policies to mask or redact any field in PeopleSoft. Using the
context of access and data attributes, organizations can implement full-field, partial-field, and click-to-view masking to
ensure that only authorized users who need to see data can see it, and only when they should.
Coupled with ASP’s field-level MFA, data masking can also be utilized to provide conditional access to allow users
to view specific data fields by performing an identity authentication challenge. Additionally, using a click-to-view
functionality, organizations can efficiently track access to sensitive data records and trace back on user activity in case
of a suspicious transaction.
Appsian’s PeopleSoft SSO Connector is the only solution that sits natively within the web server and allows PeopleSoft
to support SAML technology; thus, enabling organizations to use SAML-based identity providers for authentication with
PeopleSoft applications. By removing the hassle of managing multiple passwords, PeopleSoft SSO reduces the burden
on IT teams and makes password management easier. It also empowers users to transition between all enterprise
applications, including PeopleSoft, with one strong set of credentials - improving usability and boosting employee
engagement.
Appsian’s Application Security Platform (ASP) enables granular logging and user activity monitoring for PeopleSoft.
ASP allows customers to capture user activity data paired with contextual user information such as device, location, IP
address, etc. The transaction level data is recorded in a structured format that can efficiently highlight malicious events,
provide actionable data for incident response, and offers ready-to-use audit and compliance reports. With a click-to-
view feature, all activity involving sensitive data can then be tagged with the corresponding user role, IP, location, and
time of access. Additionally, with ASP’s Real-Time Analytics, these detailed logs can be further visualized on Splunk
leveraged dashboards to highlight trends and patterns in user activity and data usage for enhanced data discovery and
exploration.
Mobile self-service transactions offer an abundance of convenience and flexibility for both users and administrators.
Leveraging remote and flexible working that frees users from fixed office and desk environments, organizations can
significantly boost productivity, reduce turnaround time, and save associated costs. To manage the increased access
surface and the corresponding risk to data assets, organizations must build a proactive security strategy.
Application security efforts can be maximized by implementing multiple layers of contextual controls aimed at
enhancing visibility, strengthening user authentication and improving governance. While adding fine-grained security
features such as data masking, least privilege, MFA, etc. can allow organizations to avoid certain risk vectors upfront,
visibility into user activity can allow faster incident response for malicious events and their aftereffects.
Conclusion

Appsian securing mobile_ess_solution_brief

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