3rd party vendor relationships present plenty of opportunities for cybercriminals
Digital transformation is imperative for any business striving to deliver value to customers and remain relevant in fiercely competitive landscapes. Whether moving an existing infrastructure to a cloud platform or incorporating IoT devices and analytics into business models, these technologies enable organisations to increase efficiency, lower costs, and create new customer offerings that drive growth. While digital transformation allows companies to innovate, new vulnerabilities are formed, posing increased exposure to a business’s most essential commodity — data!
Attacks on a company’s data are reaching epic proportions. Just pick up a newspaper or browse the latest social media sites and you’ll see that businesses big and small face high-profile data breaches. These events are making their way to executive boardrooms, with cybersecurity considerations increasingly playing a strategic role in business. As companies evaluate the ramifications a breach can have on their brand, reputation, and bottom line, IT security professionals are working at a rapid pace to discover the source of these attacks.
Besides the actual breach itself, what is the common theme among the following examples:
‘Big Red Flag’: Automakers’ Trade Secrets Exposed in Data Leak
Data Breach at Sears and Delta May Have Hit ‘Several Hundred Thousand’ Customers
Target Hackers Broke in Via HVAC Company
In each event, the underlying theme centers around the fact that hackers infiltrated the networks of each organisation’s key 3rd party vendors to gain control of private employee data and critical infrastructure, including a company’s crown jewels, its Intellectual Property (IP).
As the number of 3rd party vendors a company forms a business relationship with increases, so does the cyber risk. IT security professionals are taking a closer look at vendor risk management in their threat landscape, and in some companies, it has become the number 1 priority. Assessing 3rd party vendors to understand what IT security and data privacy policies and procedures are being followed, along with continuous monitoring across both business and data risk, are critical components to managing 3rd party risk. In this age of digital transformation, the need for proper due diligence has never been higher.
DVV Solutions and Prevalent help companies manage 3rd party risk. We have the industry’s only unified platform that integrates a powerful combination of automated risk-tiered assessments, continuous monitoring, and evidence sharing for collaboration between companies and their vendors. Our actionable intelligence provides the most comprehensive view of vendor risk, creating maximum efficiency for all Third Party Risk Management programs.
Read our latest Third Party Risk Management White Paper
What is driving the thinking behind the next generation of Third Party Risk Management programs and platforms?
What does a comprehensive approach to Third Party Risk Management look like?
How can you and your 3rd Parties work collectively to improve efficiency and streamline the Risk Assessment process?
What tools are available to support this multi-faceted approach?
Download our latest White Paper – A Comprehensive Approach To Third Party Risk Management – to learn more.
About the Author:
Sara Muckstadt is a Product Marketing Manager at Prevalent, Inc. She is responsible for corporate marketing and demand creation activities, with a continued focus on positioning Prevalent as the leader in Third Party Risk Management.
This article was originally published by Prevalent Inc. and is shared with their kind permission.