Cyber Security Vendor Management
Protect your company’s reputation and financial stability
Secure Your Data
By identifying and reducing third-party risk, your organisation can better protect sensitive information, such as customer data and financial information, from potential data breaches or cyber attacks.
Protect Your Brand
A data breach involving a third-party vendor can harm your company’s reputation, leading to lost business and decreased customer trust. Ensuring third-party security and the data they store or have access to, can ensure your company’s brand name stays intact.
Reduce Financial Loss
A data breach with a third-party vendor may incur substantial financial losses for your business, as if the breach had taken place within your own organisation. This can include payments for breach remediation, harm to reputation, regulatory fines, legal proceedings, and increased insurance premiums.
Managing third-party risk is vital to building a secure business
As cybersecurity controls and organisational security levels advance, cybercriminals are constantly searching for easier methods to infiltrate organisations. In recent years, there has been a steady increase in attacks against third party vendors, where the threat actors exploit the trust between an organisation and its supplier to gain access to the target organisation. The importance of defending against these attacks is evident from the ongoing inclusion of cyber security vendor management mandates in leading compliance frameworks and standards. Though named differently, these frameworks all target the same risks: ISO/IEC 27001 addresses vendor risk management, NIST focuses on supply chain risk management, APRA’s CPS 234 imposes strict guidelines for third parties, and the Australian Privacy Principles mandate securing personal information stored by third parties.
This has resulted in two significant challenges for organisations:
Evaluating all relevant third parties that the organisation deals with, to guarantee risks are mitigated and compliance obligations are fulfilled.
Addressing third-party questionnaire requests from customers, which are necessary for their own third party due diligence.
Managing third-party vendors effectively, and fulfilling security and compliance obligations is not a straightforward task. Additionally, the time investment required to respond to customer questionnaire requests for vendor third party cyber risk assessments can be substantial. This requires:
Strong cybersecurity expertise – The assessor must have a deep understanding of current and emerging threats, be knowledgeable in all cybersecurity domains, and have the ability to ask the right questions. A simple questionnaire is not enough to identify all potential risk areas; it requires a combination of subject matter expertise, business acumen to assess the impact of risks on critical business processes, and an investigative mindset to gather information and ask follow-up questions. Failing to do so can result in the compromise of the organisation.
Strong knowledge of the business – Responding to vendor third party cyber risk security assessment questionnaires requires understanding the business, its technical and process controls, and all cybersecurity domains. Incorrect responses could result in losing customers due to perceived high risk, or exposure to legal consequences in the event of a breach if incorrect information is provided.
Dedicated resources – Lack of resources and time pose a challenge for managing third-party vendors. With the increasing number of vendors used by organisations, it becomes difficult to invest the necessary time and resources for assessing each vendor. The rise of digital transformation and the use of cloud and SaaS platforms for ICT needs results in data being spread across multiple platforms, requiring each platform to be assessed for potential risk. Moreover, risk management programs are ongoing and require constant monitoring due to rapid changes in the organisation and services, creating new potential risks that need to be addressed. Responding to customer vendor security assessment questionnaires can be a time-consuming task and may require a dedicated full-time resource.
Experience – Inexperience in assessing vendors may lead to missed warning signs of potential security problems. An experienced assessor can identify these signs and conduct further investigation. This expertise also enables the assessor to quickly recognise strong security processes and practices, reducing the time and cost of assessment for low-risk third parties.
External audit knowledge – Growing compliance demands necessitate processes that meet auditing standards and generate supporting documentation for audits. Without a thorough understanding, assessments may fall short during external audits, incurring extra time and resource costs and necessitating additional audits and work.
Cyber security vendor management is not the primary focus of most organisations, so having the necessary resources in-house is not usually feasible. Without specialised skills and experience in executing third party due diligence processes, the time and effort invested may be ineffective and better spent advancing your strategic goals.
How we can help…
At Morrisec, our team of expert consultants has a proven track record of assisting clients in establishing effective cyber security vendor management programs to address third-party risks and meet ongoing compliance needs. With our extensive experience and cost-efficient approach, we can help you achieve your cyber security goals.With our wide exposure conducting third-party cyber risk assessments across all industries, we have streamlined our processes and developed tailored questionnaires specific to your business. Our questionnaires are designed to minimise the time investment required from third parties, leading to higher response rates and rapid risk reduction for your organisation.
Engaging with all third-party vendors can prove challenging, leaving potential risks unaddressed. Morrisec provides comprehensive assessments for every vendor, providing a risk rating based on available evidence. This evidence can include customer reviews, whitepapers, news articles, documented security incidents, company policies, data protection measures, and security measures incorporated into their processes.
Certification to an established international standard, such as ISO/IEC 27001, illustrates a business’ commitment to security. Morrisec can assist your organisation in achieving ISO/IEC 27001 certification, regardless of the size of your business, demonstrating your investment in security and providing evidence of effective security controls.
Maximise opportunity and lead the way
Manage Risk
An effective cyber security vendor management strategy ensures that your company can quickly identify and mitigate potential risks, allowing you to focus on your core business activities while maintaining agility in engaging third parties without adding undue risk to the organisation.
Comply
Ensuring the security of third-party entities is critical when complying with various legislative, regulatory and contractual compliance obligations, including ISO/IEC 27001, CPS 234, PCI DSS, and privacy regulations like the Australian Privacy Principles and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Beat the Competition
Companies that prioritise and manage third-party risk can differentiate themselves in the market place, demonstrating their commitment to protecting their customers’ information and establishing trust with potential customers.