Securing NHIs in Salesforce and NetSuite for SOX Compliance

Blog Article by Astrix

Platforms like Salesforce and NetSuite are essential for automating business operations and managing workflows. But these powerful tools also introduce a hidden risk: non-human identities. These service accounts, integrations, bots, and extensions use non-human credentials to perform critical tasks and process sensitive financial data. Securing these identities is crucial, especially for organizations that need to comply with SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) regulations and protect the integrity of their financial information.

Let’s break down why this is so important and how to address the risks.

Non-Human Identities: A high-risk target

NHIs often have elevated privileges that make them attractive targets for attackers. In platforms like Salesforce and NetSuite, these identities drive core processes such as:

• Automating invoicing and financial reporting

• Managing customer and partner interactions

• Processing financial transactions

If these credentials are compromised, attackers can gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, potentially leading to inaccurate financial reporting or even SOX violations.

The SOX Compliance connection

SOX compliance is all about ensuring the accuracy and integrity of financial data. Since NHIs in platforms like Salesforce and NetSuite often have broad access to financial systems, they can bypass standard user-level controls. If left unsecured, attackers can use these NHIs to:

• Manipulate financial statements

• Obscure or alter transactions

• Skew financial reports

This can directly undermine the internal controls SOX compliance requires, exposing businesses to penalties and damaging their reputation.

The visibility challenge

A key challenge with NHIs is visibility and governance. Many organizations struggle to keep track of:

• Where and how NHIs are used

• Who created them

• What level of access they have

• When their behavior deviates from the norm

In highly interconnected platforms like Salesforce and NetSuite, NHIs can operate across multiple departments and external services, making it even harder to maintain proper audit trails and accountability.

How Astrix helps

Astrix helps security leaders automate the discovery, monitoring, and protection of NHIs across all environments, including Salesforce and NetSuite. With Astrix, you can:

• Ensure financial data remains secure and untampered: Astrix provides continuous monitoring and anomaly detection for NHIs, automatically identifying abnormal behavior or unauthorized access attempts.

• Maintain intact audit trails for full transparency: Astrix offers comprehensive visibility and lifecycle management capabilities for all non-human identities, including their access levels, usage patterns, and connections across systems, ensuring a complete and up-to-date audit trail.

• Confidently meet SOX compliance requirements: Astrix enforces fine-grained access controls and applies automatic policy enforcement for NHIs, ensuring compliance with SOX by preventing unauthorized access to critical financial data and systems.

In today’s world of automation, securing NHIs isn’t just a technical requirement, it’s a business imperative that protects your financial integrity and regulatory standing.