Cybersecurity Attack & Recovery with JD Edwards

Client

The client is an established senior living company that develops, owns, and operates continuing care offering retirement communities, or life plan communities, across multiple states in the USA.

Business Challenges

The client recently disclosed a data breach following a cyber security incident. During this event, an unauthorized actor infiltrated the organization’s computer system, compromising sensitive information related to over 61,000 residents. They promptly notified the impacted individuals, took the compromised systems offline, reported the incident to law enforcement, and initiated an investigation in collaboration with an IT forensics firm. Additionally, the client also engaged with ennVee and Microsoft to restore a secure working environment.

Migration to Microsoft Azure Cloud

Microsoft’s cloud solution was leveraged for this recovery effort due to prior client experience, encryption options, and database/Business Intelligence (BI) integration needs. Azure is built on a solid base of security, privacy, and compliance values and has a FedRAMP High Authorization.

ennVee Solution

As a long-term partner of the organization, ennVee provided JDE subject matter expertise by providing novel ways to efficiently restore the environment and data necessary to resume day-to-day operations as quickly as possible.

The organization decided to accelerate a planned migration to the cloud. ennVee worked in conjunction with the client to restore their environment from on-premises to new cloud infrastructure.

ennVee Solution in Detail

• In collaboration with the organization, ennVee developed a comprehensive solution that navigated through existing compromised environments in both on-premises and cloud settings, while concurrently procuring new, fortified cloud infrastructure for forensic analysis.
  
  
• Initially presumed lost, essential data, custom code, and configuration settings were meticulously assessed by ennVee Business Analysts. Together with the organization, critical master and transactional data were identified for reconstruction, with starting balances established for GL, JC, AR, AP, and FA.
  
  
• After an initial data load and then uploading and processing each month’s activities and closing until the environment was current, a year-end close was finalized.
  
  
• For restoration, ennVee team meticulously redid both the intricate code and configuration settings, laying a solid foundation for future operations. Furthermore, the rich historical data provided by critical third-party systems was capitalized.
  
  
• The strategic utilization of Orchestrator enabled seamless process harmonization, facilitating enhanced efficiency and cohesion throughout the process.
  
  
• Fortunately, the client secured newer backups for reconstructing a fresh cloud environment, with ennVee lending JDE CNC expertise. ennVee also aided in configuring and testing connections between the new JDE cloud setup and other vital third-party cloud servers.
  
  
• ennVee worked together with the organization, recovering the existing environment while also accelerating other planned project timelines such as Archiving and a Tools Release.

Data Recovery Lessons Learned

The client had a long-standing emphasis on security, with hardened systems and air-gapped backups. However, cybersecurity is a continuous arms race between implementing effective processes and systems to prevent attacks and malicious actors seeking to exploit vulnerabilities. In addition, organizations sometimes must compromise between allowing their users, vendors, and clients a non-intrusive experience and locking things down completely.

Several key takeaways

• Continuously update security policies, procedures, and systems, alongside keeping all software up to date. Notably, major software organizations like Microsoft and Oracle frequently release security updates to address newly discovered vulnerabilities, underlining the necessity for annual reviews at a minimum.
  
  
• Additionally, having adequate Cyber Insurance in place is crucial to mitigate liability and financial losses in the event of a cyberattack or data breach.
  
  
• Furthermore, in the unfortunate event of an attack, collaboration with appropriate agencies and partners is essential. It's advisable to pursue multiple recovery paths, as some avenues may not yield successful outcomes.