ERP systems like Oracle EBS are at the core of financial operations for enterprises across the world. With hundreds of transactions occurring daily, it can be hard for audit and security teams to monitor all user activity. This necessitates a strong and strategic approach to identifying and preventing fraud. While there is no single solution that can help you prevent fraud, implementing the right combination of tools and solutions can enable you to identify vulnerabilities and mitigate fraud risk within your Oracle EBS environment.
The complexity of Oracle EBS systems makes it difficult to track and monitor user activity. To protect access to critical data and transactions, security and compliance teams need to know who is accessing what. So, the logical first step in your fraud prevention strategy has to be a complete audit of your Oracle EBS applications to analyze your existing data security vulnerabilities. A detailed audit helps you identify weaknesses and provides insights into the improvements required to fill the gaps in your security.
Tip: Instead of burdening your existing security team, employ a third-party audit service that specializes in vulnerability and risk audits. This is a one-time exercise that can help you assess high-risk applications and locate blind spots that your teams may have missed.
Segregation of Duties (SoD) is a well-established method to effectively reduce the risk of internal fraud. However, many Oracle E-Business Suite customers struggle to implement SoD with SQL reporting and complicated spreadsheets. Identifying role conflicts against hundreds of user roles in a dynamic environment can be time-consuming and an administrative challenge. Instead, opting for an automated SoD solution can help you instantly identify all existing role conflicts/violations and continuously monitor new validations as they occur.
Tip: Check for solutions that provide multiple options to resolve SoD conflicts by pointing out the best combinations of authorization roles.
Provisioning plays a key role in ensuring your Oracle EBS users have access only to the data and transactions they require. However, granting user access requests while acquiring and documenting the appropriate approvals is a disjointed process. Also, without the right tools to check for potential Segregation of Duties conflicts before access is granted, new conflicts will inadvertently creep into the system. Streamlining your user provisioning process with an automated system enables you to set up an approval and review process that is documented. Not only does this reduce overprovisioning, but it also simplifies your audits.
Tip: Look for provisioning automation tools that also offer preventive Segregation of Duties checks.
The ability to monitor changes to data is crucial to identifying and tracking fraudulent activities. Visibility into master data changes, like bank accounts and supplier details, can provide auditors with the information they need to investigate and document potential fraud. While Oracle EBS allows you to audit all changes to selected tables, it does have an option to choose exactly which data and transactions should be audited. So, auditors may end up sifting through large volumes of irrelevant data. However, implementing a solution to track changes to data in real-time ensures that critical data changes are fully transparent. Since all changes to data are logged, you can take charge of your data and decide what to audit and monitor without having to go through hundreds of columns.
Tip: Choose a solution that not only monitors data changes by users but also provides before and after values.
Pathlock enables you to analyze your existing Oracle EBS security without placing any demand on your technical team. It pinpoints weaknesses and makes recommendations to minimize fraud risks. Pathlock’s Oracle EBS fraud prevention solution monitors user activity in real-time and logs all changes to the master data, enabling you to promptly investigate for signs of any fraudulent intention. The solution also triggers alerts and notifications to ensure such activities do not go undetected for long and result in huge losses.
Take a first-hand look at Pathlock’s Oracle EBS fraud prevention capabilities. Schedule a demo with our ERP experts.
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