6 ways to automate security and identity tools

A few decades ago, protecting your business meant installing a quality lock or maybe getting an intruder alarm system for your building. Fast-forward to today, and your most valuable business assets are stored on a server or in the cloud—and there are exponentially more security issues to worry about.

Thankfully, there are almost as many digital security behaviors and tools to help you protect valuable business, employee, and customer information. And by automating those security processes, you can create streamlined, reliable systems for proactively improving your business's resiliency against all threats—intentional or otherwise. Here are six ways to automate your digital security practices.

Table of contents

• Back up your site and important information

• Scan for security weaknesses proactively

• Keep your team in the loop

• Add or update users from your other apps

• Use webhooks to connect any app

• Create and store complex passwords securely

• Continually monitor for fraud

Back up your site and important information 

While we often think of cyberattackers as those that try to extract information, some will try to alter, add, or delete data. That's why it's crucial to have a backup version of your site that's always up to date. 

With Zapier, you can automatically back up documents shared between different cloud services or store backups of all the blog posts you create in WordPress. You can rest easy that the parts of your site that take the most time to create are protected from intentional attacks or unexplained crashes.

Similarly, you might use identity access management (IAM) tools like Okta or Google Workspace Admin to give users secure and controlled access to your system. But aside from everyday access, you may also want a backup of your user directory for both employees and customers. These Zaps create new rows in Google Sheets or Zapier Tables for new events and users in your IAM app. 

Scan for security weaknesses proactively

A reliable backup is a great start, but it's not all you need to keep your business data safe. You also need to take full stock of your website and make sure every element is fully secure against outside attacks.

There are plenty of reliable security tools that can help shore up your online defenses. Tools like Halo Security and Intruder, for example, can save you enormous effort by proactively flagging issues and running scans automatically. And with these Zaps, you can run security scans weekly and turn new threats into Zendesk tickets or Jira issues. That way, your IT team has help identifying and responding to security risks as soon as they appear.

Keep your team in the loop

One key to protecting your digital assets is reacting quickly to important developments. It's crucial that you alert your team of new users or send notifications to your customers about activity in their accounts. 

But no matter how big your team is, you can't stay on top of all new events and potential threats. Automation can help fill the gaps and keep your team informed about directory additions and onboarding events in real time. 

Automation can also alert you immediately to a security issue in your infrastructure. Use tools like Intruder or Acronis to scan for vulnerabilities and cybersecurity weaknesses, then send real-time notifications with Zapier's Slack or Teams integrations. Your team can stay on top of threats without needing to be glued to your security tool dashboards.

Add or update users from your other apps

Every business's onboarding process looks different. Yours might start by creating a new employee profile in BambooHR, adding a spreadsheet row, or sending a quick Slack or email message to your team's onboarding specialist. 

Your onboarding process should also include adding that new employee to IAM tools so you can manage their access to your business-critical apps. That way, every employee has secure, authenticated access to the tools they need to do their job. 

But manual account creation can bog down your IT team and slow down new hire onboarding. It also risks opening holes in your security with typos, duplicate profiles, or inconsistent profile information across apps. Instead, you can use automation to streamline your onboarding process. 

Pro tip: If you use the same Slack channel or Gmail inbox to initiate different employee processes, insert a Paths step to create a conditional workflow based on message contents. For example, messages including the word "onboard" might let Zapier know to create a new user in Azure Active Directory, while messages with "offboard" trigger a "Delete User" step instead.

Use webhooks to connect any app

What if your onboarding process starts with an app that doesn't (yet!) integrate natively with Zapier? Maybe you use an obscure form builder, custom database, or bespoke HR platform. 

In that case, you can use a webhook to create a customized workflow to fit your unique processes. Webhooks automatically send information from one app to another whenever a specific event occurs. Use one of these templates to get started.

Create and store complex passwords securely

Despite knowing that it's a terrible idea, so many people use the same or variations of the same password for almost every login they have. For business owners and employees, this may mean that they use the same password for their Target account as their entire employee database. 

This poses a massive security issue, as a single member of your organization could put your entire digital system and database at risk.

Password managers like LastPass or 1Password can help prevent this by automatically developing complex passwords for each user and each site, then storing them securely. And not only do these tools keep you secure, but they're accessible; people can use them across multiple devices. 

Even better, LastPass integrates with Zapier, which lets you automatically convert users in your most-used apps into LastPass team members. If you're worried about security standards for freelancers or contracted site developers, these automated workflows are a great solution.  

Continually monitor for fraud 

Unfortunately, it's common for people to place false orders that could hurt your business. Fraudulent credit card transactions can be devastating for small businesses, so detecting threats early can save you an exorbitant amount of time and money.

Tools like IPQualityScore, iDenfy, and IdentityCheck monitor for fraud on every purchase, protecting your business in the process. 

You can use the Zaps below to send new customer orders or inquiries to an authentication app and check for known signs of fraud before you ever fulfill an order.  

Security shouldn't be an afterthought 

Your website and digital presence are essential to your brand, and it's likely the web is where customers interact with you most. Just as you would make sure you had high-quality locks on your doors and a surveillance system around your brick-and-mortar store, it's crucial to take steps to continually protect your digital assets, too. 

When it comes to digital security, proactive and automated solutions are often best. They'll work in the background, keeping you safe and flagging anything you need to review quickly. You've got enough day-to-day worries—but with the right infrastructure in place, security shouldn't have to be one of them.

This article was originally published in April 2021 by Ana Gotter. It was most recently updated in August 2024 by Nicole Replogle.