Third-party risks are defined by the risks that external parties pose on your organization. Organizations rely heavily upon third-party vendors for services to operate their organization. These partnerships allow these organizations to receive services that make their operations more efficient. Third-party vendors often have connections into client organizations, which can result in logically bridging client networks through the third-party.
Third-party risks are continuously talked about in Cybersecurity, but what does it actually entail and what can your organization do to better protect themselves against this risk? Through this article we delve into the critical steps that organizations can take to implement third-party risk management (TPRM).
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES TO THIRD-PARTY MANAGEMENT
Third-party management can offer many benefits to your organization and security.
Enhanced Security: Mitigate risks by ensuring third parties adhere to your security standards, reducing the likelihood of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Each organization can have a greater understanding of each other’s environment and security controls to be better prepared.
Regulatory Compliance: Ensure that third-party relationships comply with relevant regulations and industry standards, avoiding costly fines and legal issues.
Risk Mitigation: Identifies and assesses risks associated with third-party vendors, allowing for proactive management and reduction of potential vulnerabilities. Your team can have more visibility into the risks associated with your third parties. The organization can take initiative-taking steps to secure its environment.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines vendor management processes, improving coordination and communication, which can lead to better service delivery and operational efficiency. Once a strategy is implemented, your organization will have an easier time gathering information
Cost Savings: Prevents financial losses associated with breaches, non-compliance penalties, and operational disruptions by managing third-party risks effectively.
Reputation Protection: Third Party Management ensures you are actively protecting your organization’s reputation. By ensuring that third parties maintain high standards of security and ethics, thus preventing negative publicity and loss of trust.
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR TPRM STRATEGY
RISK ASSESSMENT
Organizations need to include a TPRM strategy to ensure they have proper measures in place with their third-party vendors. For organizations to create a strategy they need to understand what vendors access to their environment and what overall impact have could they have on their organization. Through a risk assessment, organizations can gain a deeper understanding of the vendors they work with and what their current security posture is.
CyberForce|Q can assist in conducting this risk assessment through our Q|FRAME™ security assessment and application services or helping to design a TPRM program.
The risk assessment includes a thorough investigation into the organization’s environment, influenced by the type of data and operational criticality for each vendor. The program advisor will analyze key components of the environment and its
relationship with third-party vendors. It is important to know the level of risk that each vendor possesses. Some vendors carry more risk than others, this can assist in managing efforts. The assessment will also include a final report that includes the organization’s risks and areas of improvement.
CONTRACTS
When establishing contracts with third parties, it is essential to identify specific security requirements, compliance obligations, and audit rights. Additionally, ensuring incident response procedures are in place can strengthen your responses in time of an incident. Including clauses for regular security assessments and audits can further strengthen the contractual framework.
Any instance where the vendor does not meet your internal standards or requires an exception to the contract language should be tracked in your risk register. In addition, issues that arise during the performance of the contract should be tracked and reviewed during contract renewal.
MONITORING
Implementing security controls in not enough; you also need to continuously monitor your third-party vendor access, systems, and networks for potential security incidents. This can be done through the use of security monitoring tools and security operations centers. With active monitoring for suspicious activities or anomalies, you can detect potential incidents early on and respond in a proactive matter.
It is important to consider what type of ongoing assessments and testing you will either perform or expect from the vendor. More critical vendors should have a higher requirement and frequency for testing and attestation.
INCIDENT RESPONSE PLANNING
Statistics say despite your best efforts, security incidents will eventually occur. It is crucial to have a well-defined incident response plan in place to guide your organizations response and recovery efforts. This plan should outline the steps to be taken when an incident is detected, including containment, investigation, eradication, and recovery. Regularly testing and updating your incident response plan to ensure its effectiveness.
When developing an incident response plan, you want to consider how your vendors will engage with your organization and how you engage with theirs. Create a standard intake process that is not tied to a specific person’s email or phone and include that address in your contract as the notification method.
Ensure that you know how to contact the vendor during an emergency and which of your staff can initiate this process. It does no good to have a solid process if all of the people who can initiate it are on vacation at the same time. Knowing which roles have this authorization should also influence your security awareness training for those roles.
CONCLUSION
It’s important to keep in mind that establishing a relationship with your third-party vendors can be helpful in understanding their environment. By keeping communication open and continuously collaborating with your vendors can assist in complying with the organization’s security requirements. By having a relationship, you can communicate information sharing, improve incident response, and enhance the overall level of security in the organization.
Cybersecurity risk management is an ongoing process. It requires continuous monitoring, assessment, and adaptation to address new and emerging threats. Regular reviews and updates to your risk management strategy are essential to keep pace with the evolving cybersecurity landscape.
CyberForce|Q has been providing quantifiable cybersecurity program improvement for 28 years. We architect and implement quantifiable cybersecurity programs for organizations of all sizes – with proven cybersecurity program advancement. CyberForce|Q provides a wide range of services to a diverse group of organizations including educational organizations, public and private organizations, healthcare entities, manufacturing enterprises, and government entities.
Every organization is unique, which is why we meet you where you are in your cybersecurity journey, and tailor our solutions to your needs. – reach out to solutions@cyberforceq.com.
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