In today’s digital world, many businesses rely heavily on third-party vendors to help them carry out delegated tasks. A third-party provider is a corporation or other agency that offers services to your company. Vendor cybersecurity evaluation aids in the cost-effective improvement of operating efficiencies.
Third-party suppliers work on your behalf to deliver goods or services to your customers in compliance with a contract. They usually have access to sensitive data such as business, customer, and employee details for ease of delivery.
However, although these vendors have become an important part of many businesses’ operations, they still pose a major cyber threat. As previously reported, vendors have unrestricted access to sensitive company data and systems, which, if mismanaged, may expose the company to severe cyber threats. This is why conducting a vendor cybersecurity assessment is important.
A cyber risk assessment performed by a third party will help protect the entire technology ecosystem. Here are some of the reasons why a vendor cybersecurity evaluation is so essential.
What is a Cybersecurity Assessment of a Vendor?
According to a report conducted by Opus and the Ponemon Institute, 59 percent of businesses have had a data breach caused by one of their suppliers or third parties. Given the serious consequences of a data breach — and the fact that phishing attacks and other cyber scams have escalated as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak — it’s more critical than ever to consider a prospective vendor’s cybersecurity posture until signing on the dotted line.
A third-party cyber risk assessment examines the network protection of your suppliers in detail. The appraisal is a method of evaluating and approving potential vendors and suppliers to see whether they can follow established requirements and procedures once they are hired.
The evaluation assists your company in determining the degree of risk associated with using a third-party vendor’s product or service.
It is mandatory to monitor the company’s internal cybersecurity posture, but businesses often ignore their vendors’ cybersecurity posture. It’s important to look for your vendor’s potential flaws in the same way you look for your own.
According to a 2019 eSentire report, a third-party provider was responsible for almost half of all data breaches. As a result, it’s important to keep an eye on your vendor’s cybersecurity to prevent data breaches triggered by weak risk management.
However, it’s important for businesses to recognize that when a third-party provider suffers a data breach, the enterprise — not the vendor — is responsible for the associated costs and reputational harm.
As a result, companies must handle vendor vulnerability and cybersecurity profiles on a regular basis to ensure that their IT infrastructure remains safe.
3 Vendor Relationship and Risk Management Best Practices
It’s not unusual in today’s digital world to rely on business partners or suppliers to provide essential services. However, you should keep in mind that your cybersecurity is just as good as your weakest vendor.
Unfortunately, data breaches involving third parties are becoming more common than ever. A third-party data breach can have devastating consequences for your company, customers, and business partners. Here are three best practices to remember when it comes to vendor partnerships and risk management:
1. Conduct a risk assessment for cybersecurity.
Working for the first time for a new vendor? Conducting a cybersecurity risk evaluation is one of the most important things to do. A risk assessment’s goal is to define and weigh the risks that new third-party vendors introduce so that they can be prioritized. This enables organizations to devote the necessary funds and resources to address potential threats posed by these vendors.
2. Create a system for managing vendor risk.
Establishing a vendor risk management system is one of the simplest ways to match third-party vendor protection programmers with the organization’s risk level. NIST and ISO, for example, are common frameworks that will aid in the provision of standards in the organization. This can be accomplished by determining which third-party vendors are the most dangerous and need urgent action.
3. Recognize, track, and mitigate risk on a continuous basis.
Maintaining an efficient third-party cyber risk assessment programmer necessitates regular monitoring. Due diligence must be done on a regular basis, just as cyberspace threats are continually emerging.
Even if your company did thorough due diligence at the start of the vendor relationship, new threats are bound to arise at some stage. You always have the most up-to-date security intelligence and you have instant and continuous insight into the cyber health of your third-party vendors.
When it comes to vendor cybersecurity evaluation, there are a few main areas to keep an eye on:
- Knowledge management for suppliers and vendors.
- Compliance with corporate and social responsibility.
- Risk management for suppliers.
- Danger associated with IT vendors.
- Compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws (ABAC).
- Compliance with information security (infosec)
- Measuring performance
- Risk management in contracts.
Vendor Evaluation’s Advantages
Despite the fact that the vendor evaluation process can be difficult, the benefits far outweigh the demands and efforts needed.
Risk management is essential for ensuring cybersecurity, business continuity, and regulatory enforcement, so a vendor cybersecurity evaluation is critical. Rather than relying on incident response, a thorough vendor cybersecurity assessment will help the company rapidly mitigate third-party and fourth-party risk.
Vendor cybersecurity assessment is essential for the following reasons:
- It helps you identify third-party vendors and their associated cybersecurity risks. Vendor risk assessment is the first step to identifying and mitigating risks posed by vendors.
- Vendor monitoring ensures that compliance requirements are being met and to enhance third-party vendor contracts.
- It aids development of a prioritized and actionable plan for vendor risk mitigation following proper assessment that will expose shortcomings.
- A third-party cyber risk assessment can help safeguard your entire technology ecosystem including finding low-risk sources for high-quality goods and services.
- It also helps in the development of mutually beneficial, long-term business relationships.
Final Thoughts
Securing the vital data and systems is a continuous process, not a one-time occurrence. Hackers are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to gain access to financial, health, and government data. That’s why you need to know where your system’s flaws and bugs are so you can fix them quickly.
Professional cybersecurity assessment firms, on the other hand, are required to properly coordinate and conduct assessments on your vendors.
Sign up for a free vulnerability scan from RSI Security as the first move. You’ll get your own custom Cyber Risk Assessment Report after we’ve assessed your systems for potential flaws. The network vulnerability, web vulnerability, and dark web vulnerability scans will all be included in your Cyber Risk Report.
The free vulnerability evaluation from RSI Security is only available for a limited time. This is part of our core mission to equip companies and organizations of all sizes with the tools they need to defend themselves and their customers from ever-changing cyber-threats.
Furthermore, an RSI Security specialist will assist you in developing a customized cybersecurity improvement plan based on any gaps discovered during the vulnerability scan. Don’t wait for a hack to figure out where the vulnerabilities are.
