In today's global economy, businesses depend on third-party outsourcing to drive their operations and provide superior customer experience. Unfortunately, third parties can also drive environmental, reputational and security risks.
Third-party vendor risk management (TRPM) is the process of analyzing and minimizing risks associated with outsourcing to third-party vendors and service providers. It is often required by industry specific regulations like CMMC, HIPAA, NERC and NIST. At the same time, it is a crucial part of cybersecurity strategy.
Drawing on years of experience, DataLock has the expertise to assess risk arising from third-party vendors throughout your organization and provide a framework for ongoing risk assessments based on your industry requirements and unique business needs.
Third-Party Vendor Risk at a Glance
Today, the average enterprise works with 5,900 third parties
54% of organizations have been breached through a third party in the last 12 months
In three years, software supply chain attacks have increased by 742%
The average organization employs nearly 250 SaaS tools which can lead to software supply chain attacks
Third-Party Vendor Risk Management Services
TPRM Framework Creation – create a high-level framework to continually assess your third-party vendors on a periodic basis, as required by Federal and industry regulations. Create procedures around due diligence, management of SLAs, security control review, onboarding vendors, etc.
Identify and Categorize – create a comprehensive inventory of your third-party vendors, categorized for level of due diligence based on access to customer information, confidentiality of information, and number of associate assets.
Risk Scoring – generate a risk score for each vendor based on data access and internal processes; assess overall risk to your business from your vendor portfolio, and the risk from each vendor individually.
Documentation and Reporting – summarize and document findings for decision makers, including contextual information, risk severity, prioritization and potential remediation steps.
Risk Remediation - work alongside vendors to remediate security risks over time. Determine the level of appropriate action for violations, including whether to terminate a relationship, and communicate security issues discovered during the risk scoring process.
Risk Tracking – track risks and remediation steps on an ongoing basis, with processes for continual risk scoring and vendor review.
Key Third-Party Vendor Risk Management Benefits
Better Visibility – better understand the third parties working with your organization, with granular awareness of service standards, practices and risks. Use this visibility to further assess their role in your organization and how it impacts your mission.
Business Resilience – reduce the chance of negative impact from third-party relationships; equip your organization to prevent disruption and maintain operations in the event of a security breach, service outage or public relations problem.
Reduced Cyber Risk – detect and eliminate risks arising from software supply chain vulnerabilities that lead to data breaches, ransomware attacks and worst. Gain better visibility into shadow IT arising from unapproved SaaS apps which represent potential attack surfaces.
Better Compliance – understand and meet the standards for third-party security required by industry specific and federal regulations that may apply to your business, including HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, PCI-DSS, ISO, NIST, CMMC and more.
Stay Competitive – raise the quality of service demanded from third parties, improving customer experience and reducing the cost of adverse events. Increase the confidence of stakeholders and potential clients, improving brand equity and reputation relative to competitors.