Companies are finally understanding the importance of having a full due diligence process in place to assess their third-party vendors. But an essential part of the third-party risk management process is what happens at the end: Once you’ve finished assessing your vendors; you need to monitor them. This proactive approach will alert you of any potential or new risks that...

With increasing dependence on vendors in today’s interconnected world, vendor risk assessments are more essential than ever. No doubt, due to COVID-19, many companies took shortcuts with their security just to continue with “business as usual” during these unprecedented times. Simultaneously, however, cybercriminals were taking advantage of the situation, as is apparent by the growing intensity and frequency of cyberattacks...

Remember when “Telephone” referenced a game you played with your childhood friends? “Telephone” in the workplace, especially between you and your vendors, is anything but fun and games. It is the cause of much frustration, inefficiencies and unnecessary risk to your organization.  In recent years, businesses have greatly increased their reliance on vendors. Ideally, working with vendors enables businesses to...

What do Instagram, Marriot and General Electric have in common? All three experienced third-party vendor data breaches in 2020. It’s pretty much impossible to find a company today that is not reliant on third-party vendors for products or services. Vendors offer organizations the ability to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Unfortunately, the same vendors may also carry risk for these...

Organizations rely on passwords to ensure security. Yet according to Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), over 80% of hacking-related breaches involve the use of lost or stolen credentials.  The problem has only gotten worse in the wake of coronavirus, when businesses have been forced to require their employees to work from home. This sudden need for increased remote...

Phishing, which is an attempt to deceive a victim so as to gain access to confidential information and/or distribute infected files, is nothing new. But it’s gotten worse.  According to the Verizon Business 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, phishing was to blame for more than 67% of breaches—but that was before coronavirus. In March, phishing attacks rose 667%, and research...

If your organization is like most, then it works with third-party suppliers. Yet not everyone fully comprehends the cyber risk that comes along with doing so, and how serious the problem has become in 2020.  A combination of supply chain complexity, increased cloud storage, new data privacy regulations, remote work and rising cyberattacks have created the perfect storm for third-party...

Companies want to get down to business quickly, and that includes rapid onboarding of third parties. But often, hiring a new supplier requires a thorough security assessment to ensure that your security policies and standards are supported.  What happens when you discover that a supplier you wish to do business with is not as secure as you would like it...

Today, Panorays announced its release of the Cyber Risk Rating, a combined “bottom-line” rating of all of the cyber data available about a supplier on Panorays, including the Cyber Posture Rating, Smart Questionnaire™ Rating and business impact. Unique to Panorays, the Cyber Risk Rating enables security professionals to make quick decisions about their suppliers’ security.  To shed some light on...

The year is not even half over, and third-party data breaches continue to proliferate. In third-party data breaches, sensitive information belonging to an organization is compromised through a vendor, business partner or supplier. Such cyber events can be disastrous for organizations, which can lose customer confidence and loyalty and face hefty regulatory penalties. In fact, according to a recent Gartner...