PURPOSE AND STRATEGIC VALUE

A technically profound SAP Security Roadmap is essential for systematically identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating vulnerabilities. It enables companies to harden their SAP system landscape while also ensuring the secure execution of strategic initiatives such as S/4HANA transformation and the transition to SAP RISE. A good strucutred SAP Security Roadmap gives you a clear idea of the steps you need to take to make your SAP systems more secure and protected against future threats.

SERVICE GOALS

The primary goal of our service is to perform a holistic analysis of risks within SAP systems and to create a clear, prioritized action plan. This plan addresses both technical and organizational aspects and serves as a guide for implementing the recommended security measures.

The service includes a customized SAP Security Roadmap that guides companies through the step-by-step implementation of security improvements and the mitigation of vulnerabilities, while ensuring minimal disruption to operations. The service is tailored to each organization’s needs, regardless of whether they operate in highly regulated industries or manage complex SAP landscapes.

The service objectives for our SAP Security Roadmap can be summarized as follows:

• Analysis of existing security vulnerabilities and compliance risks based on established industry guidelines, such as BSI IT-Basic Protection, SAP, DSAG, and GDPR
• Categorization and prioritization of vulnerabilities in a mitigation project plan (action plan)
• Preparation and assurance of a secure migration from ECC to S/4HANA within RISE
• Transparency and consideration of cloud-specific and SAP RISE-specific risks
• Definition of a comprehensive security strategy for SAP operations before and after migration, as well as for cloud governance

SCOPE OF THE SERVICE

Automated vulnerability identification in the SAP System

Use of the smarterSec Security Platform to analyze insecure configurations and interfaces, critical authorizations, missing patches, and other risks such as custom-developed code. The automated analysis covers more than 350 checks, based on established industry guidelines and our extensive experience in SAP security and compliance consulting.

The result of the analysis is a complete inventory of vulnerabilities present in the SAP system, forming the basis for the development of a mitigation project plan and strategic security recommendations. The complete analysis results are automatically generated and provided in the form of an audit report, management presentation, and CSV or JSON files. These files include detailed documentation with instructions for mitigating each finding.

Development of an mitigation plan to address vulnerabilities

Development of a detailed mitigation project plan, including work packages, milestones, and a customer-specific timeline tailored to the organization’s actual capacity. Each organization is considered individually. If internal resources or dedicated SAP security expertise are lacking, smarterSec can fully take over the mitigation efforts on an additional project basis.

Everything we identify as a vulnerability; we can also mitigate – either directly for our clients or together with them in knowledge transfer sessions.

The project plan specifically defines roles and responsibilities within the project team to ensure efficient implementation of the security measures. Regular reviews are conducted to monitor mitigation progress and make adjustments as needed. A clear communication plan ensures regular reporting on project progress to all stakeholders.

Management presentation of key risks and recommended measures to harden the SAP System

In a management presentation, the results of the automated vulnerability assessment and the recommended measures for optimizing the security and compliance of the SAP system are presented. The developed mitigation project plan is being discussed in detail, providing all stakeholders with a clear overview of the planned next steps.

Preparation for migration from ECC to S/4HANA with SAP RISE

With S/4HANA systems, SAP introduces a new, more secure standard through the “Secure by Default” approach. During S/4HANA updates or migrations where the Software Logistics Toolset (SL Toolset) or Software Update Manager (SUM) is used, new security settings are automatically applied. These automatic settings can have significant impacts, which is why it is advisable to perform a compatibility check before the transformation.

As part of our SAP Security Roadmap, the SAP system is specifically analyzed — within the scope of our automated checks — for deviations from “Secure by Default.” These findings are incorporated into the mitigation project plan. This proactive approach helps prevent potential issues in advance, ultimately saving valuable time and costs during your transformation project.

Specific security requirements for RISE with SAP

Migrating to SAP S/4HANA via SAP RISE is much more than a technical upgrade, it represents a complete transformation of your SAP landscape into a cloud-centric, service-based model. This transformation introduces new security requirements and a Shared Responsibility Model between your organization, SAP, and hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.

While SAP RISE reduces infrastructure overhead, your security responsibilities remain. Under the Shared Responsibility Model, SAP clearly defines the division of responsibilities — for example, the full application layer remains under the customer’s control. This means you are responsible for securing the data stored in the application and for implementing the necessary security measures to ensure that only authorized users can access that data.

Customers using SAP Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) are also required to meet specific security parameters and hardening requirements for SAP HANA databases. These security parameters must be configured at the DATABASE level.

As part of our automated analysis, we assess your SAP system specifically for compliance with SAP’s defined security parameters and hardening guidelines. Any deviations are included in the mitigation project plan to ensure full alignment with the specific security requirements and policies of RISE with SAP.

DOCUMENTATION AND DELIVERABLES

The following documentation and deliverables are included in our SAP Security Roadmap project:

• A comprehensive technical report from the smarterSec Security Platform, including issue descriptions, business impact assessments, and actionable mitigation instructions for all identified vulnerabilities
• A time-based mitigation project plan (Excel format) outlining work packages, milestones, and a customer-specific timeline
• A management presentation (PowerPoint) summarizing the key risks and recommended security measures
• Optional: Support in the mitigation process through hands-on-sessions to remediate vulnerabilities in the SAP system

SUMMARY AND KEY BENEFITS

Our SAP Security Roadmap Service provides a comprehensive assessment of the current security and compliance status of your SAP system, along with a clear, prioritized action plan for mitigating identified vulnerabilities.

Key benefits of our service

• Full transparency into SAP system risks, translated into a prioritized mitigation plan
• Compliance with internal and external regulatory requirements
• Compatibility with Secure by Default for ECC to S/4HANA migration via RISE
• Fulfillment of specific SAP RISE security requirements and policies
• Development of a holistic security strategy for SAP operations before and after migration, including cloud governance

Get clarity. Get control. Get compliant.

Start your SAP Security Roadmap with smarterSec today.

Related topics: SAP Security Risk Assessment // SAP GDPR Assessment