Experts Weigh In: How Top Organizations Are Tackling Third-party Risk Management in the Digital Age

In the digital age, third-party risk management has become a critical concern for organizations. Top companies are taking proactive measures to protect themselves from potential cyber attacks and data breaches caused by their vendors and partners.

To tackle this issue, they are adopting several best practices, including getting cyber insurance to mitigate financial losses, ensuring compliance certifications of their third-party vendors, vendor due diligence, and periodic risk assessments to strengthen their security posture. These measures help organizations to minimize their exposure to cyber threats and ensure the integrity and confidentiality of their data.

We asked business heads how they tackle third-party risk management when they work with vendors, and here are the top three answers! 

• Get Cyber Insurance
• ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS
• Implementation of Two-factor Authentication Policies

Read on to know more on why they believe these to be an effective way to tackle third-party risks.

“When you work with third-party vendors, it’s essential that they have a solid cybersecurity program in place. Cybercriminals often target third-party vendors because they don’t have the same level of security as the company they work for. A good indicator of whether a vendor has adequate cybersecurity is whether they have signed up for a cyber insurance policy. This shows that they have taken steps to protect themselves from any financial fallout from a data breach.”

Matthew Ramirez, CEO, Rephrasely

When working with vendors, one critical cybersecurity marker to look for is their compliance with industry-standard security frameworks and certifications, such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI DSS. These frameworks provide a comprehensive set of security controls and best practices that vendors can deploy to ensure the security and privacy of their systems and data.

By assessing vendors against these security frameworks, businesses can gain assurance that the vendor has implemented appropriate security controls and processes to protect against cybersecurity risks. Additionally, compliance with these frameworks can be used to establish security and privacy requirements in contracts and service-level agreements (SLAs). It is important to note that compliance with security frameworks does not guarantee complete security; it demonstrates that the vendor has taken steps to protect their systems and data.

Brad Cummins, Founder, Insurance Geek

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds extra layers of complexity and security to the login process by going a step beyond simply entering usernames and passwords. Rather, two-factor identification requires an additional PIN code, token, or fingerprint to verify our identity.

This process makes life harder for hackers, essentially preventing situations where passwords may be stolen or guessed. It significantly reduces the chances of someone outside our organization gaining unauthorized access.

Jose Gomez, CTO and Founder, Evinex