Monday, 8 August 2016

WHY AND FOR WHAT DO WE REQUIRE AUTHORIZATION


   We require authorizations in order to achieve the following;
·         To protect sensitive business data
·         To ensure the smooth running of the business process
·         To determine the cost – benefit relation
When developing a security concept we tend to seek out; what is to be protected (ASSETS), Against what (THREATS) and how do we achieve maximum protection (MEASURES).

FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN PROTECTING AN SAP SYSTEM
·         Security must be implemented at all levels; this is because most time an attack could come from the weakest point within the system.
·         Complex authorization is just one aspect of a security concept.

SYSTEM ACCESS CONTROL AND ROLE BASED ACCESS CONTROL
System access control has to deal with users identifying themselves in the system using a valid user ID and a password; Access control has to deal with authority checks for programs and transactions.
Access control is a security technique that can be used to regulate who or what can view or use resources in a computing environment. In order to work in an sap system, users require a valid USER ID and a user master record must be created for each system user. Authorizations are assigned to a user using profiles in the form of roles which are entered into the user master record

DEFINITION OF TERMS
         i.            Roles:- It is a group of activities performed within a business scenario

       ii.            Profile:- It is a container for authorizations
             Business Scenario: - It is a group of activities performed by employees in their various roles


NOTE: A role consists or contains one or more activities in the business scenario; a single role could be involved in different business scenarios.
When creating roles we use the tcode PFCG; the four core elements of a role include
·         TRANSACTION
·         MENU
·         AUTHORIZATION
·         USER ASSIGNMENT
To view the report on SAP roles use RSUSR070 and enter SAP* to display all the roles supplied by SAP.




SECURITY & AUTHORIZATIONS IN SAP

What is authorization?

AUTHORIZATION
                Authorization is the process or a system of giving someone the privilege, access, permission to do or have something.

Authorization in Information Technology is the processing of specifying access rights to a system, data or information. It is a process that confirms what a user is allowed to perform on a system.


SAP AUTHORIZATION CONCEPT
                Security in sap is achieved through the authorization concept; the authorization concept is based upon the logical relationship between a USER ID and the range of system authorizations with which it can be associated with i.e. it is the relationship between a user and the set of activities in which he/she could perform in the system.
The authorization concept helps in establishing maximum security, sufficient privileges (accesses) for end users to fulfill their job duties.  Authorizations are used to control access at the application level.

Note: Authorization concepts seeks to achieve the following 

              a. Maximum Security
              b. Sufficient Privileges (ACCESS)
              c. User Maintenance