How can you manage third-party cybersecurity risks?

Diligently evaluating the security measures of your vendors is crucial. Traditional assessment methods often miss new threats, so it’s vital to ensure that the due diligence process is continuously updated to identify all risk factors. Ask for transparency in vendors’ security policies, and inquire about their previous cybersecurity incidents and their impact on clients .

In today's interconnected business landscape, organizations often rely on third-party vendors, suppliers, and service providers to support their operations and deliver essential products and services. While these partnerships offer numerous benefits, they also introduce cybersecurity risks that can pose significant threats to the security and integrity of an organization's data and systems. Effectively managing third-party cybersecurity risks requires a proactive approach, comprehensive strategies, and robust security measures.

Identify Third-Party Relationships: Map out all third-party vendors and their interactions within your organization's ecosystem using Wardley Maps to visualize dependencies and assess risks. Risk Assessment: Evaluate the security practices and protocols of third-party vendors, considering factors such as data handling, access controls, and compliance with industry standards. Continuous Monitoring: Implement regular monitoring and auditing processes to ensure ongoing compliance and security alignment with third-party vendors, utilizing Wardley Maps to track changes and updates in the ecosystem.

Two perspectives: 1. In today's multi cloud world where Enterprises are moving the cloud way, it is important to have a broader alignment on your enterprise compliance and infosec regulations with the third party cloud service provider. This could mean creating a custom wrapper (like security guidelines, data archival policies, data privacy policies, gateway policies etc.) on top of their services to ensure alignment. 2. If the scenario is a vendor being onboarded to custom develop modules or software plugins into your product, then an early assessment to understand how they fit into the overall IT Risk Assessment profile will help identify any potential gaps and help decide how to address those.

Check out the UK Government-backed scheme, Cyber Essentials. There are different levels of certification and they will guide you to ensure you are not overlooking any key areas that are vulnerable. This may include a technical audit from an external party. As a relatively small company this has given us a lot of peace of mind as we don't have the luxury of being able to employ a full time cyber expert.

Verträge und Regelwerke sind wichtig, geben aber in erster Linie nur ein gutes Gefühl. Viel wichtiger ist es, verbindliche Prozesse und Handlungsweisen zu vereinbaren und diese dann auch aktiv zu leben und durch die Servicemanager auf der eigenen Seite immer wieder zu hinterfragen. Die Tatsache, dass bestimmte KPIs erfüllt werden, ist oft nur ein Teil des Bildes. Wenn einem das Thema Security wichtig ist, dann muss man sich auch auf Kundenseite tief einarbeiten, damit Qualität und Compliance auch auf der Seite des Auftragnehmers sichergestellt werden kann.

Communicate your security expectations clearly with your vendors. Establish data security and privacy standards, incident response protocols, and monitoring and reporting obligations in all contracts. Regular audits for compliance are necessary to ensure the agreed security measures are in place.

Contractual Agreements: Clearly define cybersecurity requirements, responsibilities, and expectations in contracts with third-party vendors, ensuring alignment with organizational security policies and standards. Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Establish SLAs that include cybersecurity metrics and benchmarks, specifying performance expectations and consequences for non-compliance. Regular Review and Update: Utilize Wardley Maps to visualize and regularly review the cybersecurity posture of third-party relationships, updating agreements and expectations as needed to adapt to evolving threats and vulnerabilities.

Continuous Monitoring: Implement tools and processes to monitor third-party cybersecurity performance in real-time, detecting and addressing any anomalies or breaches promptly. Regular Audits and Assessments: Conduct periodic cybersecurity audits and assessments of third-party vendors to ensure compliance with security standards and contractual obligations. Feedback Loop: Use Wardley Maps to establish a feedback loop for ongoing improvement, incorporating insights from cybersecurity incidents and lessons learned into future risk management strategies and vendor selection processes.

Consistently engaging third-party partners in audits is key to keeping cybersecurity risks at bay. Regular assessments ensure ongoing compliance and help identify potential vulnerabilities before they escalate.

Continuous network monitoring is vital for real-time identification and mitigation of cybersecurity risks. Implement robust role-based access controls, ensuring only necessary vendor access, and have a detailed incident response plan in place for swift action in the event of a security breach.

Incident Response Plan: Develop and implement a robust incident response plan that clearly outlines procedures for managing and mitigating third-party cybersecurity incidents. Collaborative Approach: Utilize Wardley Maps to facilitate collaboration between internal teams and third-party vendors during cybersecurity incidents, enabling swift and coordinated responses. Post-Incident Analysis: Conduct thorough post-incident analyses to identify root causes and lessons learned, updating cybersecurity strategies and mitigating measures accordingly to prevent future occurrences.

You need to know your landscape, and you need to understand how your providers are set up. Therefore, it is critical to work as partners and not only as vendors. You need to align with the partner and check which internal processes they have established and if they are matching your action plans for security incidents. Then it is key to have a worked out incident response plan and know the key stakeholders which need to be contacted and informed immediately.

Iterative Assessment: Utilize Wardley Maps to continually assess and update the landscape of third-party cybersecurity risks, identifying emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Regular Audits: Conduct regular audits of third-party cybersecurity practices and controls to ensure compliance with established standards and protocols. Feedback Mechanisms: Implement feedback mechanisms to gather insights from stakeholders and external parties, informing ongoing improvements to third-party cybersecurity risk management processes.

For further learning and to stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices in third-party risk management, resources such as eBooks, infographics, blogs, checklists, and webinars can be invaluable. These resources can provide insights into effectively managing your third-party cybersecurity risks.