As organizations increasingly rely on third-party vendors to provide essential services, they also become more vulnerable to vendor related cybersecurity risks. A recent study by Forrester found that nearly 60% of companies experienced a data breach due to a third-party vendor in the past year.

But what are the most common vendor cyber gaps that organizations should be aware of?

What are the Most Common Third-Party Security Risks?

Panorays used data from our cyber posture evaluations to identify the most common cyber gaps from 2021. The evaluations of potential risks and security breaches took place over an extensive period and evaluated thousands of third parties from various industries. Our focus was on cyber gaps that would likely have a significant impact on the security posture and resilience of your third-party vendors, and by extension, your organization. We identified the top cyber gaps and how they may jeopardize your business:

• Significant web assets not protected by Web Application Firewall pose a grave concern as websites and apps are frequent attack targets.

• Insufficient security team personnel add fuel to the flame in this climate of increased cyber incidents.

What is Vendor Risk Management?

For organizations that rely on third-party vendors, a vendor risk management program is essential. Vendor Risk Management (VRM) deals mainly with the management and monitoring of risks resulting from third-parties and suppliers of IT products and services. VRM programs are designed to ensure that third-party products, software vendors and service providers don’t cause business disruptions or financial and reputational damage.

Vendor Risk Management Programs have a comprehensive plan for identifying and mitigating business risks, legal liabilities and reputations.

As businesses increase their use of outsourcing, VRM, and third-party risk management become increasingly important parts of any enterprise risk management framework. More organizations are entrusting aspects of their business operations to third parties and business partners, so that they can focus on what matters most. They must ensure third parties are managing information security, privacy and cybersecurity well. Third-party vendors must be made aware of the risks associated with cyber-attacks and data breaches.

If vendors lack strong security controls then your organization is at risk from operational, regulatory, financial and reputational risks. Vendor management is focused on identifying and mitigating those risks associated with vendors.

To help mitigate the risks that come with a vendor relationship, organizations need to have a vendor cyber risk management program, or third-party risk management program, in place.

How to Mitigate Vendor Cyber Security Risk

To learn more about cyber gaps from third-party relationships, download this report to reveal the most common ones and tips to address them to avoid future attacks.

If your organization is not adequately addressing these vendor security issues, you could be putting your company at serious risk. To understand more about vendor cyber risk management and how to mitigate these risks with cybersecurity measures, contact us today.