CHAOS TO COLLABORATION:

TRANSFORMING THIRD-PARTY RISK RESPONSE FOR ZERO-DAY EVENTS

A before-and-after look at building faster, more effective third-party risk management (TPRM) workflows when every second counts.

CHAOS TO COLLABORATION:

TRANSFORMING THIRD-PARTY RISK RESPONSE FOR ZERO-DAY EVENTS

A before-and-after look at building faster, more effective third-party risk management (TPRM) workflows when every second counts.

Global Zero-Day incidents are inflection points that make many organizations realize their business’s most significant risk exposure could come from a third-party resource.

However, mitigating a Zero-Day event or other pressing threat within your cyber ecosystem is often easier said than done. Manually pinpointing all of the third parties affected by a security event or concern, gauging the level of risk to your organization, and then actually getting the third parties to do something about the issues is difficult — if not impossible — to execute at scale. Plus, managing ecosystem risk often requires a lot of time and effort, neither of which teams can afford when responding to time-sensitive events.

Getting a grasp on third-party risk management (TPRM) comes down to setting a solid foundation for repeatable workflows. The proper processes will enable you to identify vulnerabilities quickly, understand precisely how they pose a risk to your ecosystem, centralize communication between all external and internal stakeholders, and manage resolutions effectively.

SETTING A FOUNDATION OF CONTINUOUS THIRD PARTY MONITORING

Many organizations assess a third-party’s risk posture every few months or years. However, irregular and out-of-date knowledge about third parties puts businesses in a tough position if a concerning threat arises. Instead, organizations need to get into the habit of monitoring third parties regularly, collecting valuable data such as:

Compliance status with various regulations and frameworks

Ransomware susceptibility

Level of potential risk to your business in the event of an incident

MITRE framework ratings across all relevant cybersecurity categories

It’s also important to establish partnerships with vendors from the get-go, requesting valuable information that will help you understand their risk posture and requesting adjustments during onboarding, while you have their undivided attention.

PROCESS
BEFORE
AFTER

Identification

Lengthy internal conversations and a lack of focus
Orderly processes for identifying which vulnerable third parties pose the most significant risk to your organization
Outreach
Overwhelmed third parties and ignored customer concerns
Targeted conversations with third parties that provide concrete answers
Resolution
No final resolution around the risk in question.
Stronger determination from third parties to see resolution through to the end.

LET'S IMPROVE EACH PROCESS, STARTING WITH IDENTIFICATION

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