Third Party Risk Management

How to Choose (and Implement) Relevant TPRM Frameworks

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

What do Toyota, Okta, and Keybank have in common?

On the surface, not much, given they operate in different sectors —car manufacturing, B2B software, and banking, respectively. But review recent cyberattacks that made the news, and you’ll see the commonality: They all suffered major data breaches in 2022 through third-party vendors. Given these are global enterprises, one would argue they had some kind of Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) framework in place.

It begs the question:

Why do companies suffer data breaches through third-parties, despite having some way to manage risks?

If you’re a CISO or an enterprise security exec pondering over that question, here’s the likely answer. First, choosing the right TPRM framework is crucial, but it’s not enough. This is because no matter how good one may be, it is only useful if effectively implemented.

And that brings us to the rest of this article.

We’d explore the top enterprise TPRM frameworks you can choose from. More importantly, you’ll see how our interoperable cybersecurity platform, Cyber Sierra, effectively streamlines their implementation.

Join SMSW

Join CISOs, CTOs, and enterprise security execs subscribed to Secure My Software Weekly (SMSW) for actionable cybersecurity, risk and compliance insights.

The Top Enterprise TPRM Frameworks

According to a report by RSI Security:

In other words, TPRM frameworks developed by NIST and ISO come recommended. But there are variations of these, so choosing which ones to implement should be based on your company’s specific needs.

To help you do that, below are the various frameworks designed by both institutions and their relevance to enterprise TPRM.

1. NIST Supply Chain Risk Management Framework (SCRMF) 800-161

NIST 800-161 was developed to supplement the NIST 800-53 designed specifically to help federal entities manage supply chain risks.

However, given the large number of 3rd parties enterprise organizations now work with, private sector organizations can also adopt NIST 800-161. This framework breaks down the supply chain or vendor risk management process into four phases:

Frame,
Access,
Respond, and
Monitor:

Across these phases, there are 19 data security control themes, ranging from employee training to systems and service acquisition.

2. NIST Vendor Risk Management Framework (RMF) 800-37

Originally developed in 2005, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) revised this framework in 2018.

Generally, the NIST 800-37 RMF outlines steps companies can take to protect their data and systems. This includes assessing the security of systems, analyzing threats, and implementing data security controls. For vendor risk management purposes, section 2.8 of the framework specifically fits the bill. It is invaluable as it helps security teams consider relevant risk mitigation tactics for onboarding new third-parties.

3. NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)

Considered the gold standard for building robust data security programs, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework can also be used when designing third-party risk management processes. Specifically, this framework outlines the best practices for creating vendor risk assessment questionnaires.

Base your third-party risk assessment questionnaires on security controls in the NIST CSF framework, and your team can accurately assess potential vendors’ cyber threat profiles. This is especially useful for enterprise organizations with strict privacy or regulatory compliance concerns.

4. ISO 27001, 27002, and 27018

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed the ISO 27001, 27002, and 27018 standards. Although known more for implementing governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) programs, these standards can also be used in creating frameworks for evaluating third-party risks.

Specifically, each of these standards have sections guiding security teams to ensure their vendor risk assessments are thorough. This is in addition to each standard helping your team manage a broader information security program across your organization.

5. ISO 27036

Unlike other ISO standards focused more on companies’ overall GRC programs, ISO 27036 series helps organizations manage risks arising from the acquisition of goods and services from suppliers.

ISO 27036 has provisions for addressing physical risks arising from working with professionals such as cleaners, security guards, delivery services, etc. It also has more standard processes for working with cloud service providers, data domiciles, and others.

Elements of an Effective Vendor Risk Management Framework

Notice something in the frameworks above?

Each addresses an element of the TPRM implementation process. For instance, NIST 800-37 enforces risk mitigation tactics for onboarding vendors while the ISO 27001 standard helps security teams design comprehensive risk assessment questionnaires.

This means two things:

First, for effective vendor risk management, companies may need to combine elements from various TPRM frameworks. The elements (or components) to keep in mind are illustrated below:

Secondly, because trying to cut off sections of various frameworks to achieve all necessary elements is too much manual work, there’s a need to streamline the process with a TPRM tool.

This is where Cyber Sierra comes in:

As shown above, our interoperable cybersecurity platform integrates NIST and ISO TPRM frameworks into easy-to-use templates for streamlined implementation.

How to Streamline Third-Party Risk Management Framework Implementation

Effective implementation of an enterprise TPRM framework must have all elements illustrated above. Specifically, it must include components for ongoing risk assessment, due diligence, contractual agreements, incidence response, and continuous monitoring.

Here’s how Cyber Sierra automates the critical ones.

Risk Assessment

This element of a TPRM framework focuses on assessing risks associated with potential third-party vendors. It involves using security questionnaires to evaluate vendors’ security practices, reputation, financial stability, and others.

But there’s a caveat.

Assessee tier (basic or advanced) and possible threats to deal with often depends on a vendor type and their geographic location. To this end, Cyber Sierra enforces security teams to choose a vendor type, geographic location, and if an advanced assessment is needed when initiating each third-party risk assessment flow:

Due Diligence

A study by the Ponemon Institute revealed why due diligence is a core component of an effective-implemented TPRM framework.

They found that:

In other words, don’t expect 3rd parties to be honest about responses to risk assessments on their threat profiles. Instead, use a TPRM platform like Cyber Sierra to auto-verify and automate due diligence on evidence uploaded for each security assessment question:

Contractual Agreements

This component of implementing a TPRM framework requires working with trained legal and compliance professionals. Such expertise is needed for designing custom contractual agreements that effectively outline each 3rd party’s security obligations, requirements, and expectations relative to risk management.

Incidence Response

How will your security team respond to cyber risks and security threats that emerge from vendors in your supply chain network?

This element of an implemented TPRM framework addresses that crucial question. It involves establishing proactive measures for remediating data threats and cyber risks arising from 3rd party vendors in your entire supply chain network.

But to respond to incidents, your security teams must first identify them before they lead to a data breach. This requires proper implementation of the fifth element of a TPRM framework.

Continuous Monitoring

This element of a TPRM framework entails:

Monitoring third-party security controls based on implemented risk management, governance, and compliance policies.
Verifying third-parties’ uploaded evidence of meeting their obligation of having required risk management controls.
Identifying and flagging vendors in your supply chain network without that fail to meet data security requirements.

Cyber Sierra streamlines these gruesome processes for vendors and organizations. First, our platform enforces ongoing third-party risk monitoring by auto-verifying 3rd parties’ uploaded evidence of having required security controls.

You can enforce this by asking vendors managed with the Cyber Sierra platform to click on “Get Verified,” say, monthly:

On your team’s dashboard view, our platform automatically verifies vendors’ uploaded evidence of having mandated security controls.

It also flags evidence that fails verification and your team can work with vendors to resolve them on the same pane:

Implement TPRM Frameworks In One Place

As demonstrated in the steps above, you can implement critical elements of an enterprise vendor risk management program with Cyber Sierra. More importantly, our platform lets you choose between the NIST or ISO TPRM frameworks:

This means whichever recommended framework makes more sense for assessing and managing third-party vendor risks in your supply chain, you can do it with our platform without jumping loops.

You can even use both for specific vendors.

Choose (and Implement) Recommended Enterprise TPRM Framework In One Place

Book a free demo to see how Cyber Sierra easily streamlines TPRM Programs for enterprise organizations.

Pramodh Rai

Meet Pramodh Rai, a technology aficionado and Cyber Sierra's co-founder, whose zest for innovation is fuelled by a cupboard stacked with zero-sugar Redbull. With a nimble footwork through the tech tulips across Asia Pacific, he's donned hats at Hmlet (the proptech kind) and Funding Societies | Modalku, building high-performing teams and technologies. A Barclays prodigy with dual degrees from Nanyang Technological University, Pramodh is a treasure trove of wisdom, dad jokes, and everything product/tech. He's the Sherpa in sneakers you need.

A weekly newsletter sharing actionable tips for CTOs & CISOs to secure their software.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Thank you for subscribing!

Please check your email to confirm your email address.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

Here’s How to Automate Ongoing Vendor Risk Monitoring

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

First impressions matter.

You wouldn’t approve a third-party vendor if they posed a single cybersecurity threat at first sight. They know this. It’s why they all come prepared with a good first impression to pass even the most rigid third-party vendor assessment questionnaires.

So while having a strict security questionnaire to score and clear 3rd parties of bringing zero risk to your organization is crucial, it’s never enough. You also need to know the risks that arise from using vendors —something positive first impressions can never detect.

Says Andy Ellis, Advisory CISO at Orca Security:

Here’s what CISOs and security executives must draw from this: Strict security assessment questionnaires have their place, but to make your third-party risk management (TPRM) processes more effective…

You Need Ongoing Vendor Risk Monitoring

Consider this stat:

And this one, too:

As these alarming data points clearly indicate, ignoring ongoing vendor risk monitoring can have serious consequences. First, about 98% of risk suffered by companies in recent years came from 3rd parties in their vendor ecosystem. Worse, a whopping 83% of those risks aren’t discovered during initial security assessments.

Continuous monitoring is therefore no longer a nice thing to have, but a core necessity. If you’re like me when I first realized this, you may be thinking: So how do CISOs and IT executives achieve continuous third-party risk monitoring?

The rest of this article will explore how. Specifically, you’ll also see how our interoperable cybersecurity and compliance automation platform, Cyber Sierra, streamlines the entire process.

But before we proceed…

Join SMSW

Get actionable insights on mitigating cybersecurity, compliance, and cyber risks sent to your inbox weekly.

Categorize Vendors; Ease Continuous Risk Monitoring

When Uber suffered a breach in September 2022 through a third party vendor, they moved quickly to block security loopholes. In their press release on the attack, the enterprise company wrote:

But just two months later, it happened again.

In December of the same year, cybercriminals stole sensitive data from Uber through another 3rd-party vendor, Teqtivity. This attack revealed that Uber may have improved their vendor risk policies, but it still wasn’t enough to detect imminent breaches.

And the reason isn’t far-fetched. Growing startups and large enterprises like Uber work with a lot of outside vendors. According to a Gartner report, over 1,000. This can make it hard for security teams to know which ones pose the most risks and need constant attention.

Vendor Categorization Solves this Problem

For instance, imagine Uber’s security team categorized third-parties in their vendor ecosystem on criteria such as:

Confidentiality of company info they can access
Sensitivity of customer information they need to work
The number of mission-critical assets they can access
Likelihood to be breached based on their operating location:

Categorizing 3rd parties in this way simplifies ongoing monitoring of vendor risks. That’s because your security team can laser-focus on those that must be tracked 24/7, as Uber should have.

And the best place to start?

When sending assessment questionnaires.

By enforcing the categorization of vendors when sending security assessment questionnaires, your team can easily profile those that:

Require advanced assessments (based on the confidentiality of your company info they’ll access)
Can access sensitive customer info or mission-critical assets (based on their assessee type –service, software, etc.)
Are more likely to get breached (based on the vendor’s country of operation):

Achieving this level of categorization is automated with Cyber Sierra’s cybersecurity and compliance automation platform assessment suite:

And it doesn’t end there.

Once categorized with our software, your security team gets a central dashboard to search and continuously monitor specific vendors for risks.

Automate Third-Party Risk Assessments

Streamline sending and management of security questionnaires. Continuously enforce and auto-verify uploaded vendor assessment evidence, all in one place.

Third-Party Risk Management Challenges Solved By Ongoing Monitoring

Typical third-party risk management is complex.

Because everywhere you turn, there are third parties potentially involved. From network servers to operating systems, to software installed on workstations, to the service-based vendors that make the business and software work. The list goes on, up to the vendors delivering office supplies. Without ongoing vendor risk monitoring, it’s almost impossible for security teams to overcome the challenge of identifying threat-carrying or at-risk vendors.

But that’s not the only challenge it solves.

1. It Reduces Wasted Costs

After the data breaches on Uber in September and December 2022, both Uber and the affected third-party vendors hired digital forensic firms to investigate. They also incurred costs, launching massive PR campaigns to communicate both incidents and save the cost of losing brand reputation and customer trust.

How much do all such costs come to?

A lot.

On average, a data breach costs companies a whopping US$4.35 million, according to IBM’s 2022 research. This amount almost doubled for US-based organizations, the study revealed. But here’s what the same study found of companies using automated tools to monitor and identify risks beforehand across the board:

Ongoing vendor risk monitoring helps your team reduce costs from third-party data breaches. As IBM’s study found, this is because your security team would be more likely to identify and mitigate them.

2. It Removes TPRM Vendor Threat Blind spots

When you’re dealing with hundreds of vendors, as is the case with most organizations today, identifying threats is hard. This leads to blind spots, which, when accumulated, make your TPRM process a threat black box waiting to be data-breached.

But with ongoing vendor risk monitoring, especially when done with an automated tool, your security team can remove such threat blind spots with prompt alerts. For instance, with Cyber Sierra, you can achieve continuous monitoring by auto-verifying all evidence uploaded during the vendor security assessment phase.

Our system runs continuously in the background to identify vendors with weak, outdated, or no security controls in place, based on uploaded evidence. Your security team gets alerted on controls that fail verification and can follow up with vendors to fix them on the same dashboard:

3. It Removes the Need for Sample-based Analysis

Consider this research finding by ThoughtLab:

The top two reasons given for this include:

Complexity of supply chains (44%),
Fast pace of digital innovation (41%).

It’s a different story on the side of cybercriminals. While security executives are grappling with emerging risks in their supply chains and vendor ecosystems, threat actors are getting even more equipped to strike. Chuck Brooks, a cybersecurity expert, observed this in a Forbes’ article.

He wrote:

At this pace, identifying vendor risks through periodic, sample-based analysis just can’t keep up. Imagine waiting for external analyst firms, which are usually expensive, to sample a segment of your vendors, say yearly. With cybercriminals now hacking companies in days and hours, of what use would that be?

Not so much.

Ongoing vendor risk monitoring removes the need for such sample-based analysis. But more importantly, as we’ve stressed so far in this article, your security team can automatically identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks from third-parties in real-time.

Automate Ongoing 3rd Party Vendor Risk Monitoring

Imagine a central place where you can easily profile vendors when onboarding and sending security assessment questionnaires. From the same dashboard, your security team gets an automatic categorization of vendors they must monitor constantly.

This categorization could be:

Vendor tier (i.e., level of integration into private/customer information or vitality to your company’s operations).
Vendor type (i.e., service, software, application software, etc., and the level of mission-critical assets they can access).
Vendor location (i.e., those based out of location with strict or weak cybersecurity regulation that requires more attention).

Cyber Sierra enables this advanced level of categorization to the third-party risk management process. Most importantly, our platform automates ongoing vendor risk monitoring. This is because your security team can quickly search and track 3rd-parties’s risk level in real-time, and in a few clicks:

Automate Ongoing Vendor Risk Monitoring

Automatically categorize vendors from the get-go when sending assessments, and simplify ongoing vendor risk monitoring.

Pramodh Rai

A weekly newsletter sharing actionable tips for CTOs & CISOs to secure their software.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Thank you for subscribing!

Please check your email to confirm your email address.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

CISOs Are Using This To Automate Third-Party Vendor Assessments

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Gartner polled enterprise compliance and legal execs.

As you may guess, due to growing concerns, one of the survey questions was to uncover risks from 3rd-party vendors. What the study found? Rethinking vendor assessments has become increasingly crucial.

According to the report:

CISOs and enterprise security managers must take this finding seriously as it tells a crucial story. What story does it tell, relative to third-party vendor risk management (TPRM), you ask?

Well, the answer is straightforward:

One-Time Assessments Don’t Mitigate Vendor Risks

And it makes sense.

You can create a well-detailed security questionnaire that properly assesses vendors before joining your organization’s supply chain network. But detailed as your questionnaire might be, they don’t guarantee the detection and prompt mitigation of new risks after vendors get the nod.

In short, they don’t guarantee that vendors who went the extra mile to pass your initial checks and win your company’s business are honest. Dustin Bailey, Fmr. Security Lead at Twilio, hammered on this.

In his words:

This poses an apt question: How should proactive enterprise security executives like yourself approach vendor risk assessments today?

I’ll answer this question by showing you how to go beyond one-time questionnaires for vendor assessments. Disclaimer: Our interoperable cybersecurity and compliance automation platform, Cyber Sierra, makes it possible and also streamlines the process.

Before we dive in…

Join SMSW

Get actionable insights on mitigating cybersecurity, compliance, and cyber risks sent to your inbox weekly.

How Should Vendor Risk Assessments Be Done?

It should be ongoing.

And the reasons are simple. First, CISOs can no longer afford to assess vendors once, no matter how detailed the security questionnaires used are, and go to sleep. Second, a BlueVoyant survey of top executives globally responsible for cybersecurity in their organizations supports this.

The study saw a whopping 93% of respondents say they suffered breaches due to weaknesses in their supply chains. Considering breaches in supply chains are usually from third-party vendors, the study uncovered even more troubling data.

These breaches are getting worse:

Based on this trend, here’s how we recommend going beyond one-time assessments to mitigate as much vendor risk as possible.

1. Categorize Vendors Based On Risk Level

The more access to your organization’s critical cloud and network environments a vendor has, the more they are likely to increase your risk surface area. The same goes for vendors who will rely on other vendors (4th parties) to fulfill their duties to your company.

But it doesn’t end there.

The type of solution a 3rd party brings to your company and their geographic location also matters. For instance, companies located in jurisdictions with weak compliance regulations are less likely to have security measures in place. All this creates the need to categorize and prioritize vendors your team must pay constant attention to.

Our recommendation?

Do this the moment you want to start assessing them.

With Cyber Sierra, for instance, your security team is prompted to categorize vendors based on the criteria above from the get-go. You can easily profile vendors when initiating an assessment by:

Indicating if an advanced assessment is needed
Choosing an assessee type (service, software, etc.)
Selecting the third-party vendor’s country of location:

2. Automate Uncovering Vendors Who Fail Assessments

Does this look familiar?

You know the drill. Send assessment questionnaires to vendors in spreadsheets, have a yes/no answer column, yet still go back and forth, chasing them to send evidence of controls.

Do it for just a couple dozens of vendors, and you risk:

Delaying the approval of compliant vendors who could be driving the business forward
Losing important files in the maze of too much back and forth
Approving vendors mistakenly whose security controls evidence aren’t verified.

Automating vendor assessments with Cyber Sierra helps mitigate these risks effectively. Our platform streamlines the entire process by allowing vendors to answer security questions and upload evidence for the same in one place, instead of using spreadsheets.

Your security team can filter or search vendors based on various criteria used to profile them. And you can see their progress in uploading evidence for assessment questionnaires in one view:

3. Enforce Ongoing Vendor Risk Assessments

Send assessments to 3rd parties with Cyber Sierra, and they’ll receive an email with instructions on how to complete your questionnaires. But instead of just ticking yes/no to security questions, your team can enforce uploading evidence for their answers.

Here’s a peek into a vendor’s view:

As shown above, they can:

Answer security questions in one click.
Upload evidence for each question answered and leave comments for your security team (your team can respond, too).
Assign their teammates to answer questions or upload evidence.
And more importantly, get uploaded evidence auto-verified by clicking on “Get Verified.”

On your team’s side, Cyber Sierra enables continuous risk assessments through two effective approaches. First, our platform automatically verifies uploaded evidence and flags unverified ones:

Second, you can mandate vendors to click on the “Get Verified” button, say monthly, and it triggers an auto-verification process in the background. This way, you can even enforce ongoing assessments.

To see all this in action:

Automate Third-Party Risk Assessments

Streamline sending and management of security questionnaires. Continuously enforce and auto-verify uploaded vendor assessment evidence, all in one place.

Do I Still Need Vendor Risk Assessment Questionnaire Templates?

A recent article in CSO Online by Andy Ellis, Advisory CISO at Orca Security, lays the foundation for answering this question.

Andy wrote:

In other words, vendor risk assessment questionnaire templates still have a place. However, simply adding more questions to templates and scoring vendor risks based on their answers is insufficient. As Andy observed, it won’t help your team understand the actual risks 3rd parties pose to your organization.

We recommend the following.

Begin the process by using appropriate security questionnaire templates. But don’t rely on them blindly. Instead, select questions relevant to a specific vendor and focus on getting them to upload verifiable evidence of having crucial security controls.

Cyber Sierra simplifies the process of doing this. Your team can choose from our prebuilt assessment questionnaire templates (or upload any custom one). More importantly, when doing so, you can select specific questions a vendor must answer and upload evidence:

Streamline Vendor Risk Assessments

Managing third-party risks is a necessity.

The only other way around it is to do away with vendors completely. But this isn’t possible, as your organization also needs them to extend its capabilities and stay competitive. In short, effective and efficient third-party vendor management (TPRM) processes can unlock the highest value for the effort expended.

Dustin Bailey corroborates:

The question then is: How do you ensure your organization’s TPRM processes are effective and efficient? Your team can do this by streamlining the process, starting from the vendor assessment step.

And that’s where Cyber Sierra comes in:

Automate Third-Party Risk Assessments

Streamline sending and management of security questionnaires. Continuously enforce and auto-verify uploaded vendor assessment evidence, all in one place.

Pramodh Rai

A weekly newsletter sharing actionable tips for CTOs & CISOs to secure their software.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Thank you for subscribing!

Please check your email to confirm your email address.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

Data Sharing and Third Parties - Risks and Benefits Unveiled

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Have you ever wondered about the risks your business could face whenever data is shared with a third party?

As businesses operate in an ever more interconnected landscape, third-party data sharing has become a common facet of routine operations. Despite the numerous benefits it brings, sharing data with external entities is not without its risks.

And you need a robust strategy to manage those risks.

This guide will help you understand everything about data sharing and offer strategies to mitigate them.

Let’s dive in.

What is a Third-Party Data Sharing Vendor?

A third-party data-sharing vendor is a business entity that functions as a bridge between your company and disparate sources of information that are otherwise disconnected from your direct operations. These vendors do not have a direct relationship with your customers, unlike your company, which is considered the first party in this context.

They harvest data from many web platforms—information that may not be directly accessible or usable by your company. This raw data can have varying degrees of complexity and is often unstructured or semi-structured.

The vendors then clean this data, removing any inaccuracies or redundancies that might compromise its reliability. This cleaned data is then consolidated and structured to align with your business’s specific data analytical needs.

What is an example of a Third Party?

Generally, a third party refers to any person, entity, or organization indirectly involved in dealings or interactions that primarily involve two other parties. Third parties often enable or facilitate specific processes or transactions between the two primary parties in business contexts.

Here are some examples:

Suppliers: Provide necessary goods or raw materials for smooth business operations.
Distribution Channels, Partners, and Resellers: Aid in sales, extend the company’s reach, and contribute to revenue generation.
Network Security Tools: Strengthen the company’s cybersecurity measures, safeguarding sensitive data.
Monitoring Solutions: Provide real-time analytics, improving decision-making and overall efficiency.
CRM Tools: Streamline customer data management and personally tailored marketing, leading to better retention.
Digital Marketing Systems: Enhance marketing efforts with automation and tracking to improve outreach and revenue growth.
Screening and Reputation Services: Assist with background checks and reputation management, maintaining a safe business environment.
Media Agencies: Oversee a company’s branding, ads, and public relations, influencing perception and success

What is Third-Party Data Sharing?

Third-party data sharing is a process where data about individuals, typically collected through various platforms and websites, is procured, compiled, and exchanged by entities distinct from the original users and data collectors. An example could be a Data Management Platform (DMP) aggregating this information.

This exchange process provides companies with rich, diverse data sets yielding valuable insights about consumer habits, behaviors, and preferences. It is broadly used in targeted advertising, social media marketing, and predictive analytics.

DMPs, as intermediaries, accumulate vast amounts of structured and unstructured data from disparate sources, sort it into usable segments, and make this data available so businesses can make data-informed decisions.

Despite its benefits, third-party data sharing raises potential issues concerning data privacy and security. As such, companies involved with third-party data sharing must remain compliant with all relevant data protection regulations (like GDPR) and focus on safeguarding user information.

What is a Data Sharing Agreement?

A Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) is a legally binding document established between parties to define the terms for sharing data. The main components of a DSA often include:

Data Description: Specifics about the shared data, such as data type, source, and purpose of sharing.
Terms and Conditions: Defines each party’s usage rights, confidentiality requirements, and responsibilities.
Limitations on Use: Stipulates the scope of data usage, forbidding misuse or overuse.
Security Measures: Outlines necessary protection measures to prevent unauthorized access, breaches, or data loss.
Privacy Guidelines: Specifies how shared data should comply with relevant privacy regulations to safeguard user identity and personal information.

DSAs are critical to ensure accountability, maintain data integrity, protect sensitive information, and legitimize data exchange between parties. They help mitigate legal risks and provide a framework for resolving disputes, facilitating safe and responsible data sharing.

The Pros and Cons of Data Sharing

Pros of Data Sharing

Enhanced insights and innovation: Sharing data between different organizations can help generate valuable insights. Pooling data can lead to collaborative problem-solving, innovation, and better decision-making.
Improved understanding of customer behavior: Businesses can gain a competitive advantage by understanding their customers better through external data.
Unearth potential opportunities: Shared data can potentially reveal new market trends, business opportunities, and unexplored customer segments.

Cons of Data Sharing

Data Breaches: Sharing data increases the chances of data breaches. Cybersecurity measures must be in place to safeguard sensitive information during transfer or storage. However, companies like Cyber Sierra offer solutions that integrate all aspects of governance, cybersecurity, and compliance into interoperable modules, reducing this risk.
Loss of Control: Once data is shared, control over who has access and how the data is used can be lost, potentially leading to misuse.
Traceability issues: It can be challenging to track who has accessed shared data, when, and for what purpose – particularly crucial for sensitive information.
Third-Party risks: Sharing data with third parties entails risk, as their security protocols and handling practices may not align with the original data owner’s standards.

When a company thinks about sharing data, they should carefully weigh the benefits of doing so, like gaining valuable insights, against the need to make sure the data is kept safe from unauthorized access or misuse.

What is Third-Party Risk?

Third-party risk refers to the potential hazards of third parties, such as service providers or vendors, who can indirectly impact an organization’s stability or security. This risk broadly falls into operational, cyber-security, legal, financial, or reputational threats.

One significant aspect of third-party risk is data breaches. As a company shares data with third parties, vulnerabilities may emerge if the external entity doesn’t take sufficient precautions, exposing sensitive data to unauthorized access.

Rapid response complications represent another facet of third-party risk. An organization may struggle to respond promptly in crises due to limited control over third-party operations.

Additionally, businesses may experience risks when collaborating with third parties that have weak data governance practices. This could potentially endanger data security, compromise its quality, or lead to misuse.

What Is Third-Party Risk Management?

Third-party risk management involves identifying, evaluating, and mitigating risks associated with working with third-party vendors. It often involves conducting due diligence, establishing data-sharing agreements, monitoring vendor performance, and implementing data privacy and security controls.

How to mitigate Third-Party Risk and why it is important

You can mitigate third-party risk by establishing a robust third-party risk management program. This includes:

Let’s take a look at each of these steps in more detail.

1. Risk assessment

Start by conducting a comprehensive risk assessment of any potential third-party vendor. Explore every dimension of their business operation, from financial stability and ability to comply with agreed terms and conditions to reputation and history related to any security incidents.

You should also consider your degree of outsourcing to the third party, their geographic location, and whether tumultuous political or economic landscapes impact their business operations.

2. Due diligence

A due diligence process helps ensure that the third parties you engage with have stringent procedural, technical, and administrative safeguards. Take your time to thoroughly evaluate their policies, certifications, and service level agreements (SLAs).

Do they have the necessary certifications that pertain to their industry and yours, such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2? Do they conduct regular security audits and make the results available? Do the terms of their SLAs align with your expectations?

Thoroughly scrutinize their contracts for any hidden liabilities or responsibilities.

Cyber Sierra automates the entire process and gives you one-stop access for managing and mitigating your third party risks.

3. Define clear contract terms and conditions

When drafting contracts, be explicit about your expectations from the third party. This includes your data protection standards, penalties applicable for non-compliance, and the milestones they are expected to meet.

Your contracts should also outline any regulatory standards you must comply with, like GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA, and reinforce the third party’s obligation to uphold these standards.

4. Continuous monitoring

Once a third party is onboarded, the job doesn’t end there. Monitoring their operational performance, adherence to the contract terms, and key performance indicators (KPIs) is necessary.

You should regularly conduct audits and assessments to ensure third parties stay compliant and their performance is congruent with your expectations. Don’t be afraid to revise your business strategies as the market changes.

Again, Cyber Sierra can be your ally, providing seamless monitoring and timely recommendations to address potential threats and risks.

5. Implement a vendor management system

To effectively manage multiple third-party vendors, consider investing in a robust vendor management system (VMS). A good VMS will allow you to keep a detailed record of all third-party relationships, track their performance, and monitor any potential risks.

Technological advancements, such as AI and Big Data, have enabled more automated, efficient systems that can offer real-time risk monitoring and send alerts when a deviation is from the normal pattern.

Cyber Sierra’s TPRM program allows you to monitor the security posture of all your vendors and helps you score them based on their risk potential.

6. Develop an incident response plan

In the unfortunate scenario that a third party causes a security incident, you must have a well-prepared incident response plan. This plan should include the steps to contain and remediate the situation, how you would notify any affected parties, and address any related regulatory obligations.

Predefine communication protocols educate all stakeholders about their responsibilities and detail the steps for escalation to minimize damage caused by the incident.

Wrapping Up

The above six steps will help you to create a solid cybersecurity program and reduce the risks associated with third-party vendors. However, it’s important to remember that this is an ongoing process; you’ll need to continue monitoring your vendor relationships, ensuring they’re up-to-date on security best practices and keeping them accountable for their compliance.

Given the complexity of third-party data sharing, a well-rounded, professional solution is crucial. That’s where Cyber Sierra comes in. With a suite of tools to help you keep your data secure and up-to-date on the latest security standards, we provide the resources to make decisions that will keep your business safe.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Cyber Sierra can help you manage your third-party data sharing, book a free demo today.

Srividhya Karthik

Srividhya Karthik is a seasoned content marketer and the Head of Marketing at Cyber Sierra. With a firm belief in the power of storytelling, she brings years of experience to create engaging narratives that captivate audiences. She also brings valuable insights from her work in the field of cybersecurity and compliance, possessing a deep understanding of the challenges and pain points faced by customers in these domains.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

Best Practices to Create a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Program

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

All businesses involve finance, sales, marketing, and other operations. And outsourcing some of these functions is the easiest way for large enterprises to grow. However, it’s imperative to recognize that these business relationships can also expose your enterprise to significant threats in the form of data breaches.

According to a survey by IBM, nearly 83% of the organizations they studied have had more than one data breach. And it caused an average loss of $4.35 million!

The smart way to circumvent these third-party risks is to mitigate and manage them proactively. Enter Third-Party Risk Management.

Read on to uncover everything you need to know about Third-party risk management and its best practices.

What is Third-Party Risk Management?

The third-party risk management is a structured approach to mitigate any third-party risks associated with your business. Enterprises create a TPRM framework, which includes vendor risk assessment, monitoring, and mitigation to protect their data.

Vendors, suppliers, contractors, distributors, service providers, manufacturers, affiliates, and other third-party organizations expose your enterprise to a multitude of risks. Third-party risk include:

Operational risks
Financial risks
Reputational risk
Compliance risk
Cyberattack risk
Data protection risks

Third-party risk refers to the various types of risk that a business faces from its relationships with other parties and organizations that it works with.

6 critical components of the TPRM Framework

There are six components of a typical third-party risk management framework including:

The process involved in each element is different and goes through a lifecycle. Let’s dive into each of them.

1. Risk assessment and categorization

The company assesses the risk associated with each third-party vendor. A TPRM framework identifies and evaluates the risks stemming from any third-party relationship. This may encompass operational, financial, compliance, and other aspects.

This step is crucial for identifying potential threats to the business. The TPRM framework incorporates risk matrices or scoring systems to categorize these risks

2. Due diligence

Due diligence is a process that involves assessing qualifications, conducting background checks, and verifying documents before engaging in a third-party relationship. This process serves to diminish the likelihood of potential threats posed by third-party vendors and fosters trust between your company and these vendors.

Organizations should establish specific criteria for selecting vendors, which may include evaluating their financial stability, ensuring compliance with regulations, and assessing alignment with corporate values.

3. Contractual agreements

Contractual agreements entail the creation of precise contracts that outline responsibilities, obligations, expectations, scope, and other essential terms. These contracts incorporate legal clauses designed to safeguard data against breaches and ensure compliance with regulations.

They also include conditions and indemnifications to address various scenarios. It’s important to note that contracts may need to be modified in response to new regulations or significant changes in circumstances.

4. Continuous monitoring

Continuous monitoring is an automated process in which companies routinely assess networks, organizations, IT systems, and other third parties to ensure they adhere to legal contracts and obligations.

This component detects security, performance, or noncompliance issues and prevents/ warns them! Companies use metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure performance and legal obligations.

5. Risk mitigation

Now that you have identified the risks, it’s time to take action. This phase involves the development and implementation of strategies to mitigate or manage the risks associated with third parties. Risk mitigation strategies may include contingency plans, security controls, insurance coverage, and other measures.

6. Incident response

Incident response plans delineate the steps to be taken in the event of an incident, encompassing the involvement of third parties and the risks associated with them, such as data breaches or compliance violations.

This step is essential to ensure a coordinated response whenever an incident occurs. These plans typically include the identification of the incident, notification of stakeholders, containment of the incident, investigation of its root causes, and the implementation of corrective actions.

Each of these components is crucial for a proactive and successful third-party risk management lifecycle.

10 steps to create a strong Third-Party Risk Management Framework

Any cybersecurity-conscious enterprise must adopt a robust TPRM framework to identify, avoid, and mitigate any third-party risks in its business operations.

Here are the 10 steps to create a third-party risk management framework that manages all your business risks.

1. List all the third-party affairs

No matter the number or size of the third-party vendors you are affiliated with, you must document every vendor information in your system. It includes the vendor information, their service type, the risks they can make, and their roles.

2. Identify and categorize the third parties.

Create a separate list of categories to quantify the risks based on the third-party affairs and based on their potential impact on the business.

Make an intuitive category, either ABC or high, medium, or low, depending on the risk rating. Then, put each of them in the class according to the seriousness of the risks.

For instance, the TPRM program in Cyber Sierra allows enterprises to maintain a central repository of all their vendors on a single platform and helps score them in terms of the risks. But more on that later.

3. Vendor risk assessment

Identify and assess every risk associated with third-party vendors. Document and categorize each of them into the different types of risks. You can table them as operational, financial, legal or reputational.

This helps to assess the potential risks that the third-party relationship in the future might cause. With Cyber Sierra, you can do a continuous risk assessment for your third-party vendors and identify all the potential risks associated with them and proactively take mitigating actions to reduce their impact.

4. Risk mitigation and control

It might cost you a good governance team to handle your TPRM framework- but it’s worth it. Appoint a TPRM team in your organization, or get yourself a professional TPRM platform such as Cyber Sierra’s that can manage it all for you. Cyber Sierra can seamlessly bridge the gap between your TPRM requirements and your vendors, and make the process effortless, efficient, and most importantly, effective.

5. Due diligence

Even though the due diligence method is quite traditional, it pours many benefits into the TPRM framework. Develop a strategy that involves a series of diligent inspections. It includes a thorough background check, document verifications, checking the reputation, financial audits, and security of the third-party organization.

This is a process that requires time and effort, but it can be very effective in protecting your business from fraud and other risks. A thorough due diligence will help you avoid the hard costs associated with doing business with an unreliable vendor.

6. Contractual agreements

Inform your third-party vendors of the significance of the boundaries maintained in case of regulatory compliance.

Create a concise and explicit contract that states the scope, parties’ roles, data protection clauses, regulatory compliance, and termination conditions. This way, any third-party company that causes risk is subjected to legal obligations.

7. Continuous monitoring

Establish a system for continuous monitoring of third-party activities and risk exposure to prevent any risks ahead.

Set the frequency for assessments, which may vary based on the nature of the relationship. Companies also use metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure performance and adherence to contract terms.

Cyber Sierra’s intelligent platform allows you to monitor the security posture of your vendors continuously instead of simply relying on a one-off filling up of security questionnaires with no means to follow up and ensure all the security practices are always put to practice.

8. Reporting and communication

Create mechanisms for reporting and communicating third-party risks to relevant stakeholders. Ensure executives and regulatory authorities are informed to prevent any leading miscommunications between the stakeholders and the company.

9. Continuous improvement

Review and update your TPRM program regularly based on lessons learned, changes in third-party relationships, and evolving risks. To manage the risks better, adapt to new regulatory requirements, industry best practices, and technologies that give new insights into the TPRM framework.

With Cyber Sierra, you can incorporate regulatory as well as custom requirements into your TPRM framework.

10. Exit strategies

Vendor offboarding is also a critical step and needs meticulous planning and best practices such as data retrieval and contingency plans.

Benefits of Third-Party Risk Management

Implementing a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) program offers numerous benefits to organizations across various industries. Here are some of the key advantages:

Let’s look at them one by one.

1. Reduced risks

TPRM helps organizations identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with their third-party relationships. This approach minimizes the likelihood of unexpected issues, such as data breaches, compliance violations, or supply chain disruptions.

2. Enhanced security

It also helps protect sensitive data and intellectual property. The TPRM program assesses the third-party cybersecurity practices and requires security controls. This eliminates the primary source of stress in the age of cyber-attacks.

3. Lowered costs

TPRM programs are excellent in detecting the risks. Therefore, they prevent costly incidents or disruptions resulting from third-party failures. As aforementioned, data breaches can cause millions of financial losses, leading to reputational damage.

4. Continued operations

Effective TPRM programs include contingency planning for potential disruptions caused by third parties. This ensures that operations can continue smoothly even when third-party issues arise.

5. Protected data

Protecting customer data and sensitive information is a top priority for many organizations. TPRM ensures that third parties handle data appropriately, reducing the risk of data breaches.

Best Practices for Maintaining an Effective Third-Party Risk Management Framework

Managing risk is a vital aspect of any business endeavor. Consequently, the need for an effective third-party risk management framework is both pressing and complex.

Here are some best practices to ensure that your third-party risk management framework is not only robust but can adapt to an ever-evolving risk landscape.

Perform comprehensive due diligence

Due diligence is more than checking a box; it’s about understanding a potential third-party’s operations, controls, reputation, and financial health. Your risk management, therefore, must start before a partnership or engagement begins.

It’s crucial that you delve into their past dealings to spot any red flags regarding their business conduct, legal or regulatory issues.

Adopt tiered risk assessment

Not every third-party will pose the same level of risk to your organization. Some may have a minimal impact, while others can have significant business implications.

Categorize your third-party partnerships based on the level of risk exposure they bring. This helps focus your resources where they are most needed.

Establish clear communication channels

Transparent, unimpeded communication channels form the backbone of effective risk management. From notifying third parties about your policies and expectations to obtaining updates about their activities that may impact your business, communication is key.

Regular dialogues also reaffirm the third-party’s responsibility towards risk management and ensure they remain compliant with your standards.

Train your team

The onus of managing third-party risk doesn’t fall on a single department; it is an organizational endeavor.

Therefore, inculcate a culture of risk awareness throughout your organization. Regular training sessions help employees at all levels grasp the significance of third-party risk and their role in mitigating it.

With Cyber Sierra, you can ensure your team is well-informed and trained on how to mitigate third-party risk. Our training sessions can also be customized based on your requirements, so you can be sure they meet all the legal and regulatory standards that apply to your organization.

Leverage technology

There are numerous technologies, software, and tools available today that can streamline your risk management processes.

These solutions can automate various steps of the risk assessment process, keep track of documentation, provide real-time analytics, and ensure a consistent approach to risk management across the organization.

Check out our detailed guide on: Best Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Tools.

Conclusion

Risk management is a dynamic process that needs to be updated regularly. You need to keep track of the changing business environment, new regulations and legislation, and new threats and vulnerabilities. This is why it’s so important to have a dedicated team in place that can conduct regular risk assessments and make sure your organization has the right policies and procedures in place.

With Cyber Sierra’s third-party risk management program you evaluate, mitigate, and monitor third-party vendor risks.

The TPRM program is customizable to the needs of different industries and ensures compliance with region-specific regulations, such as Singapore’s PDPA, Australia’s CIRMP, Europe’s GDPR, and USA’s CCPA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, to name a few.

Book a demo to know more.

Srividhya Karthik

A weekly newsletter sharing actionable tips for CTOs & CISOs to secure their software.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Thank you for subscribing!

Please check your email to confirm your email address.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

Steps to Effective Third-Party Risk Management - Safeguarding Your Business Partnerships

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

‘You’re only as strong as your weakest link’. In today’s interconnected business landscape, this adage carries more weight than ever before.

Why, you might ask?

Because third-party partnerships, for all their benefits, could very well become that weak link when not properly safeguarded.

Does your organization have a robust third-party risk management program in place?

If the answer gives you pause, you are not alone. Many businesses grapple with the challenge of managing third-party risks effectively.

In this guide, you will learn how to set up a third-party risk management program to help avoid costly mistakes and legal entanglements.

Let’s dive in.

Effective third-party risk management - a step-by-step guide

To effectively manage third-party risks, you should take a step-by-step approach. The following section guides how to set up a robust program that includes the following seven key components:

1. Create a standardized, automated onboarding process

A successful third-party risk management starts with a structured onboarding process for every vendor.

Why?

To ensure all necessary compliance checks are conducted with the same level of rigor, regardless of the vendor.

The process must entail:

Background Checks: Do a complete background and reputation check on the vendor, including operational history and potential compliance issues.
Financial Stability Assessment: This helps understand the vendor’s operational robustness and prevent unexpected business operation disruptions.
Security: Review the vendor’s security practices, data management policies, and disaster recovery plans to prevent future data breaches.
Regulatory Compliance: Check their adherence to industry regulations, licenses, and data protection laws.

Automating these tasks ensures fewer errors and consistency.

2. Identify all of your third-party risks

Upon onboarding, thoroughly evaluate any existing and potential third-party risks associated with new vendors. This process includes identifying financial, legal, operational, cybersecurity, and reputational risks.

Financial risks require understanding a third party’s financial stability, which is crucial to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.
Legal risks encompass potential litigation or regulatory sanctions due to the third party’s actions. You must ensure your partner’s adherence to regulations and laws to safeguard your legal position.
Operational risks involve potential losses due to the third party’s failed internal processes, people, or systems.
Cybersecurity risks, prevalent and growing, relate to potential data breaches and cyber threats.
Lastly, reputational risks can cause significant damage due to a third party’s unethical or controversial actions.

To address each risk effectively, you should collaborate with stakeholders from different departments to gain insight into every aspect of the third-party relationship.

3. Create a profile for each vendor

Establishing a complete vendor profile helps maintain an organized database of all current and prospective vendors.

Each vendor profile should include essential information such as company details, risk assessments, contracts, performance reviews, and other relevant documentation. A comprehensive vendor profile enables you to make informed decisions about your partnerships while evaluating risk and adjusting as needed.

4. Use risk & control assessments

Risk and control assessments are vital for efficient third-party risk management. They evaluate vendors’ compliance with your organization’s policies, procedures, and relevant regulations.

Risk assessments identify vulnerabilities, estimate threats’ probability and impact, and measure associated risks with each vendor. Control assessments focus on the effectiveness of vendors’ measures to mitigate acknowledged risks, including procedures to prevent or manage threats.

Tailor assessments to each third-party relationship, considering the specific services, industry context, and unique risks. Assessments should be iterative, reflecting changes in the business risk profile, vendor operations, or relevant laws and regulations.

These assessments’ results inform risk management decisions, such as avoidance, transfer, mitigation, or acceptance. They offer insights into vendor performance and improvement opportunities, guiding decisions like contract renewals or terminations and aiding in enhancing vendors’ risk management practices.

5. Have a remediation management plan

A remediation management plan is crucial in third-party risk management as it addresses risks and issues identified during risk and controls assessments.

This plan should clearly outline the required actions for each risk, assigning responsibilities to specific individuals or teams. Deadlines should be set to ensure timely implementation. Additionally, monitoring the progress of the remediation plan is essential.

Regular reporting and follow-ups should be built into the plan to hold vendors accountable for mitigating the risks per the agreed timelines. Doing so assures proactive management of issues before they manifest into tangible problems affecting your operations or reputation.

For instance, Cyber Sierra offers a continuous monitoring system that can help identify vulnerabilities in near real-time and guides steps to overcome them.

6. Regularly review contracts

Third-party contracts need regular reviews to ensure they remain current and effective in the light of evolving business requirements, regulatory environment, or identified risks.

This practice helps incorporate new standards or regulations into existing agreements, thereby ensuring compliance.

In this way, contract reviews turn into a preventive measure, minimizing the probability of unanticipated risks and safeguarding your organization’s interests.

7. Mandate ongoing vendor monitoring

Ongoing vendor monitoring helps detect and manage emerging risks in third-party relationships in real time. This process validates that vendors uphold their agreed-upon performance levels and continually meet your organization’s risk management objectives.

Effective vendor monitoring may comprise periodic assessments, performance evaluations, and regular audits. Not only does this practice help identify potential issues early, but it also triggers timely actions to prevent any negative impact.

Consequently, ongoing monitoring strengthens business partnerships, maintains operational stability, and fosters trust and reliability between your organization and its vendors.

The Cyber Sierra platform integrates seamlessly into your systems, allowing for ongoing monitoring of potential threats. It provides a robust solution for real-time vendor risk monitoring, empowering your organization to meet its third-party risk management objectives proactively.

Wrapping Up

Implementing a robust third-party risk management program is indispensable in today’s business environment. Not only does it establish secure business partnerships, but it also guards the very future of your organization. An effective program can build trust, increase resilience, and offer a competitive edge despite potential risks and uncertainties.

However, addressing third-party risk management’s complexity requires an integrated, comprehensive solution.

This is where Cyber Sierra can make a difference. With the ability to connect the dots across your entire organization, Cyber Sierra provides a comprehensive risk management solution to help you identify and manage third-party risks.

Book a demo to learn more.

Srividhya Karthik

A weekly newsletter sharing actionable tips for CTOs & CISOs to secure their software.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Thank you for subscribing!

Please check your email to confirm your email address.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

Best Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Tools - Safeguarding Your Business Relationships

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Searching for a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) tool that can help manage your security posture as well as business relationships?

The market offers a myriad of TPRM tools, each promising to maintain order.

But where does one start, and how do you know which solution is the right fit for your business?

In this guide, we’ll break it down for you. We’ll explain the nuances of TPRM and how it can effectively oversee your business relationships.

We’ll also give you some pointers on choosing the right TPRM tool for your business so you can start managing risks today!

Let’s get started.

What is Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)?

Third-party risk management (TPRM) is a process that helps organizations identify, assess, and manage risks associated with their business relationships with third-parties. This includes the vendors, contractors, suppliers, distributors, and other parties that you work with to grow your business.

TPRM is an important part of enterprise risk management, and helps identify and manage risks associated with business operations. Third-party risk management tools can help enterprises analyze, assess, and manage these risks.

Your organization can also use TPRM tools to minimize legal liability and financial loss risks. It’s a crucial part of any security program that aims to prevent data breaches, cyber-attacks, and other threats related to information security.

Why Do You Need Third-Party Risk Management Tools?

TPRM tools extend beyond risk assessment and monitoring. They provide a comprehensive, data-driven framework for risk management, while also automating processes. This automation not only reduces the likelihood of human errors but also greatly expedites operational workflows.

Here are some essential reasons why you should use third-party risk management tools:

1. Assessing and Monitoring Risks

Third-party risk management tools play a pivotal role in evaluating and overseeing risks that can stem from diverse origins, including legal obligations, operational interruptions, and cyber vulnerabilities.

In the Gartner survey of 100 executive risk committee members in September 2022, 84% said third-party risks resulted in disruptions in operations.

A ‘miss’ occurs when a third-party risk incident results in at least one of the outcomes as shown below.

assessing and monitoring controls — https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-02-21-gartner-survey-shows-third-party-risk-management-misses-are-hurting-ororganizations

This shows how organizations that adopt third-party risk management tools can better assess, monitor, and manage their risks.

2. Automation and Efficiency

The automation provided by TPRM tools can

Save valuable resources,
Reduce human error, and
Accelerate operations.

Automation offers a more uniform approach to managing third-party risks by eliminating individual biases and ensuring all third parties are scrutinized to the same degree.

3. Complexity in Supply Chain Processes

The increased reliance on third-party vendors and global sourcing has added multiple layers of complexity to the supply chain.

As a result, it has become difficult for businesses to manage the associated risks without the assistance of TPRM tools.

A 2023 report from KPMG revealed that 82% of businesses faced a supply chain disruption due to third-party risk, emphasizing the importance of TPRM tools.

4. Regulatory Compliance

Heightened regulatory requirements mandate companies to manage third-party risks effectively. TPRM tools can help businesses achieve regulatory compliance by providing clear visibility into the third-party risk landscape.

Key Considerations for Choosing TPRM Tools

Selecting the optimum Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) tool isn’t a task one should take lightly.

Multiple vital aspects must be considered to ensure the tool aligns well with your business dynamics while offering substantial value in risk management.

These include:

1. Real-Time Risk Updating

Consider a sudden data breach at a third-party vendor; how promptly would you know?

Risks can emerge in the blink of an eye. Quick visibility into such risks is crucial.

Thus, a TPRM tool should be able to update risk assessments in real time, providing immediate visibility into vulnerabilities.

Such a feature enables businesses to respond promptly and effectively to emerging threats and manage their third-party risks proactively.

2. Role-Based Access Control

What would happen if sensitive data falls into the wrong hands within your own organization due to loosely controlled access rights? Preventing such scenarios is where role-based access control becomes invaluable.

Role-based access control is a vital feature in a TPRM tool and allows you to assign specific access privileges based on user roles and control permissions. Doing this ensures that critical information is only accessible to those needing it, enhancing data security and reducing the chance of internal data breaches.

3. Compliance Management

The terrain of regulatory compliance is increasingly complex and dynamic. Companies are expected to keep pace with constantly evolving local and global standards, which can result in costly penalties or irreparable reputational damage. This is where having a TPRM tool with a robust compliance management feature becomes pivotal.

A robust TPRM tool should equip the enterprise to respond to compliance requirements and manage compliance as an ongoing initiative, aligning with local and global regulations.

Whether it’s GDPR for data protection, SOC2 for service organizations, or ISO27001 for information security management, your TPRM tool should be capable of managing compliance with these diverse standards.

The tool should employ measures to track your company’s compliance status regularly, issuing reminders for mandatory assessments, audits, or reporting.

4. Integration Capabilities

Integration capabilities ensure the tool synergizes well with your existing systems. A TPRM tool that integrates smoothly with other platforms (such as your CRM, ERP, or ITSM) enhances data-sharing, process synchronization, and overall operational efficiency.

5. Budget and Technical Capacities

Lastly, businesses must strike a balance between the offered features and the cost of the TPRM tool. Evaluate if the tool provides good value for the price and aligns with your budgetary constraints.

At the same time, assess your team’s technical prowess and readiness to implement and use the tool to its fullest. You should also look for a tool that offers employee training and support, as this reduces the overall learning curve.

6. Scalable solution

Look for a TPRM tool that is scalable and can accommodate your organization’s growth, increasing vendor relationships, and expanding risk landscape. This flexibility ensures that the TPRM tool remains effective and relevant as your business continues to flourish.

Top Third-Party Risk Management Tools for 2023

Numerous quality tools are available for Third-Party Risk Management. Based on the functionality, user reviews, and reputation within the industry, the top contenders for 2023 are:

Cyber Sierra
BitSight
One Trust
Upguard
Venminder

Let’s look at the details of the tool one by one:

1. Cyber Sierra

Cyber Sierra TPRM program empowers enterprises to evaluate, mitigate, and monitor third-party vendor risks.

Top Third-Party Risk Management Tools for 2023 — https://cybersierra.co/

Here are the key features of Cyber Sierra:

Identify third-party risks: Gain insight into the key risks associated with third-party vendors and develop an understanding of how to identify them

Remediate & manage vendor risks: Implement a structured framework to evaluate, assess, and automate your third-party risk management processes

Prioritize your vendor inventory: Categorize vendors by risk level to allocate resources efficiently and prioritize high-risk vendors for focused attention

Continuously monitor all your vendors: Get near real-time 24*7 visibility of all your vendors’ security compliance with alerts and correction actions on a need basis

These key features are built around being proactive in threat detection and swiftly managing risks to provide organizations with an efficient and robust solution.

Cyber Sierra’s TPRM program is customizable to the needs of different industries and ensures compliance with region-specific regulations, such as Singapore’s PDPA, Australia’s CIRMP, Europe’s GDPR, and USA’s CCPA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, to name a few.

It also comes with a training module to equip employees with awareness on various security topics.

What’s good: Cyber Sierra stands out for its vendor risk assessment and due diligence, intuitive interface, and powerful risk management and reporting.

2. BitSight

BitSight specializes in security ratings and risk management. Its features include automated risk prioritization, detailed analytics, and robust third-party risk management capabilities.

Here are the key features of BitSight:

Security Ratings: Get objective and quantifiable measurements for your cybersecurity posture and vendors.
Atlas Platform: Get a user-friendly 360-degree risk view, enabling risk segmentation and peer comparison.
Peer Benchmarking: Benchmark your organization and vendors against industry peers.

This gives you a broad perspective of your organization’s risk landscape, enabling you to effectively understand and prioritize your risk mitigation efforts.

What’s good: BitSight’s strength lies in its detailed risk assessments, comprehensive security ratings, and ability to simplify complex data points into actionable insights.

3. OneTrust Third-Party Risk Management

OneTrust TPRM is a part of OneTrust’s larger privacy, information security, and governance platform, facilitating a holistic approach to risk management. Some notable features are its automation capabilities, central repository for third-party data, and risk identification tools.

Here are the top features of OneTrust TPRM:

Unified Privacy, Governance, and Risk Platform: Access a comprehensive platform that covers privacy, information security, and governance.
AI-Powered Risk Analysis: Employ artificial intelligence for identifying and prioritizing relevant risks.
Scope Wizard: Automatically determine which assessments to perform on each vendor based on collected information.

What’s good: OneTrust integrates smoothly with various management systems, ensuring consistency in data collection, analysis, and reporting. It also helps streamline vendor assessments with its automation features.

4. UpGuard

UpGuard combines a comprehensive solution with third-party risk management, security posture management, and data leak detection. It provides scores to indicate the cybersecurity risk level of vendors and helps maintain continual visibility and control over data.

Here are the top features of UpGuard:

Continuous Assessment: Get real-time updates on your vendors’ cyber risks, enabling your organization to react promptly to emerging or changing risks.
BreachSight: Proactively detect data leaks or exposed credentials to prevent severe data breaches, protecting your company’s reputation and finances.
Actionable Remediation Guidance: Get specific guidance to quickly and effectively rectify identified security issues, enhancing your overall cybersecurity posture.

What’s good: UpGuard has a robust risk scoring system, ability to discover and remediate data leaks, and offers consistent monitoring of every vendor.

5. Venminder

Venminder offers a robust TPRM solution with services including contract management, due diligence and risk assessments, questionnaires, and ongoing monitoring capabilities. You can store all third-party risk data and information in one place, simplifying audits and reporting.

Here are the top features of Venminder:

Managed Services: Reduce your internal team’s workload, allowing them to focus on core business tasks.
Third-Party Expert Evaluations: Get expert evaluations that provide reliable and accurate assessments to help you make informed and confident decisions about your vendors.
Regulatory Compliance Focus: Ensure your vendor relationships meet regulatory standards to avoid fines and other negative consequences of non-compliance.

What’s good: Venminder’s focus on ongoing monitoring and its excellent regulatory compliance capabilities, which can be essential for businesses in regulated industries.

How TPRM Tools Improve Vendor Performance Monitoring?

TPRM tools play a pivotal role in enhancing the monitoring of vendor performance through a multitude of key mechanisms.

1. Centralized View

TPRM tools consolidate and present your vendor data within a single centralized platform. This capability fosters a more streamlined and effective approach to vendor management. The integration of all data into one location guarantees your continuous awareness of any alterations or potential risks linked to your vendors.

Consider this scenario: if a vendor displays early indications of a potential data breach, a TPRM tool would promptly notify you, enabling swift and decisive responses.

Likewise, instances of vendors consistently falling short of performance benchmarks become readily identifiable and manageable through this centralized viewpoint.

2. Standardizing Performance Metrics

TPRM tools provide standardized metrics to track vendor performance. Standardization can reduce confusion and miscommunication, as everyone involved clearly understands the benchmarks for performance.

You could establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as quality of service, delivery time, data security standards, or anything relevant to your business that a vendor needs to deliver on.

The ability to easily track these KPIs over time helps compare vendors and choose who should continue being part of your business based on their consistent performance.

3. Actionable Insights

TPRM tools often provide advanced analytics and reporting functionality. This enables you to carry out deeper analysis and gain valuable insights into your vendors’ overall performance and the risks they pose.

They can highlight patterns and trends that may be less visible in day-to-day operations. Consequently, these insights allow you to move from reactive to proactive – you don’t need to wait for problems to occur but stop them before they happen.

These insights can also guide decision-making processes for contract renewals, renegotiations, and vendor selection.

4. Vendor Sourcing and Onboarding

Some TPRM tools offer unique features to help with vendor sourcing, selection, and onboarding. They may come with capabilities to perform an initial assessment of potential vendors, ranking them based on the organization’s specific needs and requirements.

This ensures a smooth and systematic onboarding process and sets the tone for what is expected from vendors.

It helps kick-start the vendor’s journey on the right foot — knowing exactly what performance metrics they’ll be judged upon, minimizing future surprises, and ensuring optimal performance.

Over time, this can transform your relationships with your vendors, resulting in better collaboration and performance.

Enhancing Vendor Due Diligence with TPRM Tools

Vendor due diligence is a critical aspect of the procurement process. TPRM tools help to automate, streamline, and improve this process by providing rigorous risk assessment protocols, tracking vendor interaction, and providing real-time insights to make informed decisions.

The right TPRM tool will enhance your performance, minimize risks, and help maintain successful and secure business relationships.

Though all the tools can help you with vendor due diligence, the one that is best for your organization will depend on your business needs and the type of procurement processes you have. Look for solutions that meet your current and future needs.

Cyber Sierra, for instance, grants you much more than an ordinary TPRM solution. Its comprehensive suite leapfrogs the limitations of conventional point solutions by offering a platform with a unified cybersecurity approach. With Cyber Sierra, you also get:

Regular security awareness training for employees,
Compliance with the dynamic regulatory landscape,
Prompt resolution of cloud misconfigurations,
Simplified management and renewal of cyber insurance policies.

Book a demo and see how the Cyber Sierra’s platform can help you stay ahead of the curve and manage your risk more efficiently.

Srividhya Karthik

A weekly newsletter sharing actionable tips for CTOs & CISOs to secure their software.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Thank you for subscribing!

Please check your email to confirm your email address.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

A Quick Guide for CISOs to Automate Third Party Risk Management

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

After its Sep. 2022 data breach, Uber wrote:

The response was swift, as you’d expect from an enterprise company. Latha Maripuri, Uber’s CISO, in a New York Times’ report, confirmed the move to tighten internal security, so such attacks don’t happen again.

But just two months later in December, it happened again. Despite tightening internal cybersecurity measures, Uber suffered another cyberattack. This time through a third-party vendor, Teqtivity.

Their case has a crucial lesson for CISOs.

Tightening internal data security measures is a must, but it’s not enough. In trying to breach companies’ data, going through 3rd-party vendors has become a hot shot window for cybercriminals:

Unfortunately, the reality is that your company needs third-party vendors to expand capabilities. So since they can’t be cut off, CISOs must rise to the occasion of managing third-party vendor risks.

And it starts with understanding your role.

The Role of CISOs in Vendor Risk Management

The CISO role is evolving.

In the past, operating as tactical manager per the CXO’s direction was enough. It was enough because being reactive —dealing with minor threats when they emerged or implementing a few security needs —was enough.

As Uber’s case showed, being reactive isn’t enough.

Modern CISOs have evolved from reactive —constantly playing defense —to strategic. They are getting more involved in the overall operation of the business. And this involves ensuring internal security awareness while managing possible external vendor threats.

Joao Correia corroborates:

The need to also evolve your role to a more strategic focus on managing vendor risks cannot be overstretched.

That’s because doing otherwise can lead to significant financial losses for your company and organizations connected to you. To give you a clue, when SolarWinds witnessed a cyberattack, all third-party companies affected lost up to USD12 million on average:

Talking about being more strategic to curb such losses…

It’s crucial that you know:

Common third-party vendor risks to prioritize, and
How to manage them without increasing your workload.

We’ll cover both in this guide, but before we dive in:

Join Secure My Software Weekly

Actionable cybersecurity insights helping CISOs, CTOs, and security pros secure their software weekly.

Common Third-Party Vendor Risks CISOs Should Prioritize

Here’s why the onus is on you, the CISO.

You can’t rely on third-party vendors to notify you when they get breached, let alone possible ways they could be attacked. For context, out of more than 1,000 IT security professionals surveyed, only 34% were confident a 3rd party vendor would notify them of a data breach:

This insight is instructive: Know the common risks to manage based on their likely impact on your business, without relying on third-party disclosures.

Some of them are as follows.

1. Information Security Risks

NIST defines information security or infosec as:

As the definition highlights, infosec risks arise when 3rd-parities’ can’t provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data your company grants them access to.

In other words, can the management of a third-party vendor secure your company’s data in their possession from unauthorized access?

If they answer no, that’s a loophole for cybercriminals.

Unauthorized network access, to give you a perspective, caused over 40% of third-party vendor attacks that had a cascading effect on companies:

The issue, as noted earlier, is vendors won’t point out this weakness. Not when they’re eager to win your company’s business. So to manage and curtail infosec threats, collect and verify as much evidence as necessary before approving the onboarding of a vendor.

Better if you can do this from one platform:

2. Cybersecurity Risks

Consider this scenario.

A third-party vendor with access to your company’s data witnesses a malware or ransomware cyberattack. Assume also that you’d verified them on the information security front, and they actually protected your data.

If they safeguard your data from breaches, but cannot secure themselves from cyberattacks, your company is still at risk. That’s how cybersecurity risks differ a bit from information security, infosec:

A third-party vendor’s inability to protect themselves poses serious threats —cybersecurity risks— to your company, too. In short, the knock-on effect can also be devastating as infosec risks.

Cyenthia Institute’s study highlights:

As you would when trying to manage infosec risks, don’t expect 3rd parties to willingly disclose they can’t protect themselves from cyberattacks. Collect and verify as much evidence as possible.

Specifically, request evidence for things like:

Risk management
Communications and operations management
Cyber resilience & threat intelligence
Access control
And others.

Again, better to request and verify these in one place:

3. Operational Risks

Imagine a third-party vendor shuts down.

How much will it affect your company’s operations?
Can you trust them to correctly dispose of your data?
What levels of risk will it expose your organization to?

It’s crucial to ensure that 3rd-party operations won’t expose your company to risks, per the concerns above. More so in today’s digitally-driven business climate of cloud-based software and API integrations.

Talking about security threats from the operations of third-party vendor software or APIs integrated into yours, a Gartner study advised:

The challenge:

How do you know which vendors to seek such added protection from?

By requesting and verifying things like:

Software development lifecycle
Cloud based services information
Technology refreshment management
And others.

4. Compliance Risks

Are 3rd-party vendors your company works with compliant with standards, laws, policies, and regulations in a given industry or jurisdiction?

IT security executives must ask this crucial question.

That’s because if they aren’t, they could expose your organization to legal and regulatory compliance penalties. According to Deloitte, this is a common 3rd-party risk enterprise organizations face:

Compliance with standard frameworks like SOC 2, ISO27001, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, etc., are all necessary. Also, confirm a third-party vendor is compliant with regulations specific to their industry and exact location.

Here’s an excellent way to do that.

When onboarding a third-party vendor:

Choose the right vendor type: This will help you know the industry-specific regulatory compliance to request and verify.
Select their location: This will help you know the local laws and regulations they must be compliant with to avoid risks.

Both are some crucial TPRM workflows built into our platform:

As shown above, Cyber Sierra simplifies vendor categorization, so you can assess them seamlessly from the get-go. Our software also automates most processes involved with third-party vendor risk management.

Cutoff Endless Manual Work

Automate third-party vendor risk management, right from the get-go.

How CISOs Automate Vendor Risk Management

UIC’s CISO, Shefali Mookencherry, once said:

Unpack that, and you’ll notice categories of assessments to be carried out on third-party vendors before CISOs should give the greenlight:

Information security profile
Possible cybersecurity threats
Operational and regulatory risks

All three categories involve a lot of standard and custom security questionnaires and ongoing risk assessments. Each must be sent to vendors with due dates, received back, resent to them for failing to meet requirements, sent back to you, and so-on-and-so forth.

This manual back-and-forth isn’t optimal, and that’s where automation comes in. With the right platform, you can automate TPRM in three steps:

1. Streamlining Vendor Risk Assessments

In the US, for instance, it is required to assess a 3rd-party’s infosec and cybersecurity risks, using policies specific to SOC and NIST.

And there are about 35 standard assessments across both.

If you’ve ever tried to assess just one vendor, manual back and forth can be a real nightmare. Using software to streamline the process allows for quicker and more cost-effective vendor assessments in less time.

Let’s stay with our US-based third-party vendor example.

Cyber Sierra streamlines the entire process to just three steps. Choose the vendor’s industry in the 1st, and in the 2nd step, the policy templates for SOC and NIST are already pre-built (and updated regularly).

All you have to do is select the one you want to use:

As indicated above, you can also upload and send custom assessment policies. Either way, the entire assessment processes are streamlined.

2. Facilitating Due Diligence & Verifications

Vendor risk management doesn’t end with sending security questionnaires and risk assessments. After that, security executives must perform:

Due diligence on uploaded documentation, and
Verify that they have the correct security controls.

Both processes can also be hectic.

But with the right software, you can automate this crucial step by facilitating due diligence and verifying controls. Cyber Sierra, for instance, autoverifies vendor-uploaded documentation that meets due diligence thresholds. Our software can also flag those that fail verification.

It doesn’t end there.

You can chat with a third-party vendor, flagging unacceptable security controls and why a document they uploaded failed verification:

Simplifying due diligence and verifying controls this way has benefits.

Some are:

Accurate and faster verifications, without context-switching.
Third-party vendors you’re about to work with will know exactly how to improve their cybersecurity posture, making our entire ecosystem safer.
Everyone saves time (and money).

3. Monitoring Controls Continuously

Recall Uber’s data breach through Teqtivity.

It’s likely Uber, being a large enterprise, completed necessary third-party infosec and cybersecurity assessments when integrating them into their software. Still, the cyberattack on Teqtivity, which happened after both companies worked for long, affected Uber.

Imagine Uber had regularly monitored Teqtivity’s security controls.

Chances are, they would’ve spotted possible cyber threats that could also affect them and flagged for mitigation. Continuous security controls on third-party vendors are necessary for this.

But it’s not just that.

As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, compliance regulations, both standard, industry, and location-specific ones, are also evolving. Continuous monitoring of 3rd-party security controls is therefore also crucial to avoid business operations being stalled by regulatory sanctions.

A veteran infosec and cybersecurity expert corroborates:

Choose More Than a TPRM Platform

An excellent third-party risk management (TPRM) platform automates a chunk of the processes, saving you from manual labor. But in choosing the right one, there are crucial things CISOs must also look out for.

Here’s what Delta Air’s Global CISO looks out for:

It’s easy to imagine Debbie’s stand.

As we’ve seen, managing 3rd-party vendor risks involves a lot:

Ascertaining their information security capabilities
Assessing them for possible cybersecurity threats
Monitoring their security controls continuously

Ticking all these boxes already takes a lot of back and forth without the right TPRM solution. However, it is just one bit of what CISOs need to proactively implement internal and external security measures.

For instance, you also need to streamline things like:

Ongoing employee security awareness training
Staying up to date with regulatory compliance
Dealing with cloud misconfigurations, and
Securing and renewing cyber insurance.

Achieving all these in one, interoperable solution is optimal.

And that’s where Cyber Sierra comes in:

Ditch Point Solutions

Cyber Sierra integrates five core modules into one, interoperable cybersecurity solution suite.

Pramodh Rai

A weekly newsletter sharing actionable tips for CTOs & CISOs to secure their software.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Thank you for subscribing!

Please check your email to confirm your email address.

Find out how we can assist you in
completing your compliance journey.

Book a Demo

Third Party Risk Management

Experts Weigh In: How Top Organizations Are Tackling Third-party Risk Management in the Digital Age

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

In the digital age, third-party risk management has become a critical concern for organizations. Top companies are taking proactive measures to protect themselves from potential cyber attacks and data breaches caused by their vendors and partners.

To tackle this issue, they are adopting several best practices, including getting cyber insurance to mitigate financial losses, ensuring compliance certifications of their third-party vendors, vendor due diligence, and periodic risk assessments to strengthen their security posture. These measures help organizations to minimize their exposure to cyber threats and ensure the integrity and confidentiality of their data.

We asked business heads how they tackle third-party risk management when they work with vendors, and here are the top three answers!

Get Cyber Insurance
ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS
Implementation of Two-factor Authentication Policies

Read on to know more on why they believe these to be an effective way to tackle third-party risks.

Get Cyber Insurance

Cybercriminals often target third-party vendors because they don’t have the same level of security as the company they work for. A good indicator of whether a vendor has adequate cybersecurity is whether they have signed up for a cyber insurance policy.

Matthew Ramirez

CEO, Rephrasely

“When you work with third-party vendors, it’s essential that they have a solid cybersecurity program in place. Cybercriminals often target third-party vendors because they don’t have the same level of security as the company they work for. A good indicator of whether a vendor has adequate cybersecurity is whether they have signed up for a cyber insurance policy. This shows that they have taken steps to protect themselves from any financial fallout from a data breach.”

Matthew Ramirez, CEO, Rephrasely

Look for Compliance Certifications

Brad Cummins

Founder, Insurance Geek

When working with vendors, one critical cybersecurity marker to look for is their compliance with industry-standard security frameworks and certifications, such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS. These frameworks provide a comprehensive set of security controls and best practices that vendors can deploy to ensure the security and privacy of their systems and data.

By assessing vendors against these security frameworks, businesses can gain assurance that the vendor has implemented appropriate security controls and processes to protect against cybersecurity risks. Additionally, compliance with these frameworks can be used to establish security and privacy requirements in contracts and service-level agreements (SLAs). It is important to note that compliance with security frameworks does not guarantee complete security; it demonstrates that the vendor has taken steps to protect their systems and data.

Brad Cummins, Founder, Insurance Geek

Implementation of Two-factor Authentication Policies

Implementing the 2FA process makes life harder for hackers, preventing passwords from being stolen or guessed.

Jose Gomez

CTO and Founder, Evinex

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds extra layers of complexity and security to the login process by going a step beyond simply entering usernames and passwords. Rather, two-factor identification requires an additional PIN code, token, or fingerprint to verify our identity.

This process makes life harder for hackers, essentially preventing situations where passwords may be stolen or guessed. It significantly reduces the chances of someone outside our organization gaining unauthorized access.

Jose Gomez, CTO and Founder, Evinex

Srividhya Karthik

Find out how we can assist you in completing your compliance journey.

Request Demo

Third Party Risk Management

Cyber Sierra Roundtable on Managing Software Supply Chain Risk

Table of Contents

Join thousands of professionals and get the latest insight on Compliance & Cybersecurity.

Your Name*

Your Email Address*

I accept Cyber Sierra's terms and conditions*

Supply chain risk in the world of information security gains notoriety with every new breach. 2020’s SolarWinds breach is a never-ending saga, with news of impacted entities continuing to come up. Vulnerabilities in open source are another headache, with log4j dominating headlines.

How does the information security team prepare for such unknowns, with only one certainty in mind, that such unknowns exist and can come up suddenly on any given day?

A team of experts convened during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2022 to discuss supply chain risk from a cybersecurity perspective. This meeting was facilitated by Cyber Sierra in Singapore. Please find below a summary of questions, panelists, and discussion points.

What are some impacts of third-party vendor risks? How do you manage such risks?
Have you experienced first-hand such supply chain attacks? Can you share your learnings and experiences?
Do you classify vendors by their potential severity of risks?
Are you able to isolate or ring fence a problematic system or solution (from a vendor) from the rest of your systems?
How can companies guard against misleading declarations from vendors?
Is there a role for regulators to play in terms of enforcing certain best practices in containing supply chain risk?
What is your opinion of a mandatory cyber insurance policy?

Panelists (Reference)

Pramodh Rai, Co-Founder and CEO, Cyber Sierra
Subhajit Mandal, Co-Founder and COO, Cyber Sierra
Anagat Pareek, Advisor, Cyber Sierra
Edwin Tan, Head of Information Security, Julius Baer
Stephen Barnham, Global Head of Technology, Prudential
Silvia Thom, ex-CTO, Zalora

Guarding against third-party risks amid an evolving cyber security landscape

Getting cybersecurity right can be extraordinarily complex given the constantly evolving landscape of new threat vectors and security vulnerabilities. In many cases, the weak link is human, and even senior executives have found themselves tricked through social engineering, noted Stephen Barnham, a senior technology leader in the Banking and Financials Service Industry (BFSI).

Speaking at a recent roundtable discussion organised by Cyber Sierra with IT and cybersecurity practitioners, he shared an anecdote of how a General Manager was tricked by someone purporting to be the CEO to transfer tens of thousands of dollars for a non-existent company initiative.

While the natural propensity might be to dismiss or ignore potential cybersecurity weaknesses as something that will not happen to us, Barnham urged businesses to establish a culture of awareness around cybersecurity and to make it everyone’s responsibility.

The risks from without

As the world becomes more interlinked and businesses digitalise, one growing risk would undoubtedly be from third-party organisations. At the root of this are digital systems that are increasingly integrated, including with external vendors and partners. When ignored, this can lead to a variety of cybersecurity breaches including bad actors gaining entry through them or supply chain attacks. Silvia Thom, who was formally the CTO at Zalora, shares that vendor security is a common problem.

“You send out a security questionnaire [to the third party] and you get back the answers. There’s that pressure to get the contract from the other side. And, you know, if it’s a two, three-year-old vendor, how much security could they have built up?” said Silvia.

But is third-party risk management crucial? Pramodh Rai, co-founder and CEO of Cyber Sierra thinks so. He pointed to the prevalent use of automated hacking tools by threat actors, citing the example of how some Internet-accessible databases were hacked within minutes of going live.

“Somebody somewhere has written a script that is looking for common vulnerabilities. That’s why it’s important to validate your cybersecurity posture first – because the other side is automating the process of hacking,” said Rai.

Security or speed? Choose one

But why are so few organisations paying attention to third-party risk management? According to Anagat Pareek, ex-CISO of PayTm, third-party risk management is at the bottom of priorities at most organisations mainly due to a lack of time.

“There were instances where we had to turn [vendors] away because of the lengthy onboarding time. By the time we go through the laborious security checks, it would take too much time out of the project runway. In the absence of a [better solution], it can get to the point that we miss a business opportunity,” said Barnham of the time crunch when addressing third-party risk.

But keeping everything in-house is often not the solution either. Barnham explained: “You are in a world where you want to give your developers access to open source. You want them to go to publicly available code repositories. You are contracting external developers and have a hybrid team of developers.”

For many, the result is a compromise where security is reduced to a security checklist.

“We give out access to our systems to vendors. We check the compliance of these vendors by sending them security questionnaires with checklists. If they tick ‘no’, they don’t get the contract. So, everything is ‘yes’, of course. But how do you know that each one of them is compliant?” asked Pareek.

“How are they controlling access to data? Is their data encrypted at rest and in motion? Are they PCI-compliant? We rely a lot on paperwork to answer these questions, but really, nobody has the wherewithal to go out and look at 100 vendors. It’s impossible. We need a better solution.”

A better way with Cyber Sierra

There is where Cyber Sierra can make a difference, says Pareek. “Cyber Sierra can be deployed to scan the network and upload the report. Many vendors may not know what a security vulnerability is, or what a network scan is. And they don’t want to buy another commercial solution – they are trying to build a business after all. Cyber Sierra will also help them become more secure and give the clients they work with the confidence that they’re dealing with a secure organisation. I think it’s a win-win situation.”

Edwin Tan, Head of Information Security at Julius Baer concurred: “Cyber Sierra can provide efficient due diligence of a vendor setup based on measurable criteria. This allows us to take quick proactive action in working with the vendor to address the key concerns before engaging them.”

“My environment has become so much more complicated over the last 10 years; my attack surface has become significantly broader. This is where all my attention is going. If there is a solution that enables me to connect to third parties yet gives me peace of mind about who I’m connecting to, by verifying that they are compliant to whatever standards we want to hold them to. This would help me to use my time far more efficiently,” said Barnham.

Verify and insure

Another benefit of automated checks lies in their ability to verify that a security declaration is indeed true. Barnham added: “When you have that automated tooling and knowledge that there is that automated tooling, it will disincentivise individuals from lying about their preparedness and compliance. Because now they know they are going to get caught. This allows you to get out of that vicious cycle of pointless checklists, and instead becomes a proactive collaboration.”

“Once people in the ecosystem know that you have this capability, they will not want to turn up at your doorstep, making false declarations,” Rai agreed.

And what role can cyber insurance play? Participants at the roundtable are uncertain if it should be mandatory but agreed that it can give companies a choice to mitigate risk, assuming the premium is affordable

Srividhya Karthik

Find out how we can assist you in completing your compliance journey.

Request Demo

Thank you for reaching out to us!

We will get back to you soon.

How to Choose (and Implement) Relevant TPRM Frameworks

Thank you for subscribing us!

The Top Enterprise TPRM Frameworks

1. NIST Supply Chain Risk Management Framework (SCRMF) 800-161

2. NIST Vendor Risk Management Framework (RMF) 800-37

3. NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)

4. ISO 27001, 27002, and 27018

5. ISO 27036

Elements of an Effective Vendor Risk Management Framework

How to Streamline Third-Party Risk Management Framework Implementation

Risk Assessment

Due Diligence

Contractual Agreements

Incidence Response

Continuous Monitoring

Implement TPRM Frameworks In One Place

Related Articles

Top 7 Third Party Risk Management Tools (2024)

The 9 Best Internal Audit Software in 2024

Enterprise TPRM Buyer’s Guide for CISOs

Thank you for subscribing!

Here’s How to Automate Ongoing Vendor Risk Monitoring

Thank you for subscribing us!

You Need Ongoing Vendor Risk Monitoring

Categorize Vendors; Ease Continuous Risk Monitoring

Vendor Categorization Solves this Problem

Third-Party Risk Management Challenges Solved By Ongoing Monitoring

1. It Reduces Wasted Costs

2. It Removes TPRM Vendor Threat Blind spots

3. It Removes the Need for Sample-based Analysis

Automate Ongoing 3rd Party Vendor Risk Monitoring

Related Articles

Top 7 Third Party Risk Management Tools (2024)

The 9 Best Internal Audit Software in 2024

Enterprise TPRM Buyer’s Guide for CISOs

Thank you for subscribing!

CISOs Are Using This To Automate Third-Party Vendor Assessments

Thank you for subscribing us!

One-Time Assessments Don’t Mitigate Vendor Risks

How Should Vendor Risk Assessments Be Done?

1. Categorize Vendors Based On Risk Level

2. Automate Uncovering Vendors Who Fail Assessments

3. Enforce Ongoing Vendor Risk Assessments

Do I Still Need Vendor Risk Assessment Questionnaire Templates?

Streamline Vendor Risk Assessments

Related Articles

Top 7 Third Party Risk Management Tools (2024)

The 9 Best Internal Audit Software in 2024

Enterprise TPRM Buyer’s Guide for CISOs

Thank you for subscribing!

Data Sharing and Third Parties - Risks and Benefits Unveiled

Thank you for subscribing us!

What is a Third-Party Data Sharing Vendor?

What is an example of a Third Party?

What is Third-Party Data Sharing?

What is a Data Sharing Agreement?

The Pros and Cons of Data Sharing

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-3807 size-full" src="https://cybersierra.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/14_Data-Sharing-and-Third-Parties-Risks-and-Benefits-Unveiled5-scaled.jpg" alt="pros and cons of data sharing" width="2560" height="1671" />

Pros of Data Sharing

Cons of Data Sharing

What is Third-Party Risk?

What Is Third-Party Risk Management?

How to mitigate Third-Party Risk and why it is important

1. Risk assessment

2. Due diligence

3. Define clear contract terms and conditions

4. Continuous monitoring

5. Implement a vendor management system

6. Develop an incident response plan

Wrapping Up

Related Articles

Top 7 Third Party Risk Management Tools (2024)

The 9 Best Internal Audit Software in 2024

Enterprise TPRM Buyer’s Guide for CISOs

Thank you for subscribing!

Best Practices to Create a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Program

Thank you for subscribing us!

What is Third-Party Risk Management?

6 critical components of the TPRM Framework

1. Risk assessment and categorization