Third-Party Cyber Risk Management
A New Approach
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Cyber risk management, the process of proactively identifying, analyzing and mitigating risks in an organization’s cyber ecosystem, is the next evolution of vendor risk management. While traditional TPRM strategies are reactive, cyber risk management identifies and mitigates risks before they become an issue.
The key components of a proactive cyber risk management program include:
- Continuous risk intelligence to supplement and contextualize cyber ratings.
- Alerts to changes in risk posture prioritized by business-specific risk tolerances.
- Forward-looking risk scoring tied to known threat vectors to highlight vendors most at risk of an attack.
- Actionable intelligence to understand the impact of emerging threats throughout the supply chain.
- Asset-level findings with clear steps toward incremental improvement.
- AI to free teams from manual processes, such as filling out questionnaires, so they can focus on more strategic work.
- Streamlined communication mechanisms that allow for seamless vendor collaboration.
Top Warning Signs That Your Company Is Susceptible to Attack
In today's cybersecurity landscape, threat actors are increasingly targeting supply chains and vendors to maximize the impact of their attacks. Therefore, it’s crucial to monitor third parties and recognize the early warning signs of potentially disruptive attacks.
Here are some key indicators to watch for →
Critical Vulnerabilities: A critical vulnerability that has been or could be exploited by threat actors poses a significant risk. In addition, exploiting vulnerabilities remains the primary attack method for ransomware groups. But with thousands of vulnerabilities (CVEs) published monthly, not every vulnerability is necessarily a threat indicator. Rigorous analysis and vulnerability intelligence are essential to assess the actual risk.
Concentration Risk: When a significant portion of an organization’s operations, data, or services relies on a single vendor, system or geographic area, a cyberattack targeting that concentrated point can have widespread and severe consequences. This centralization creates a single point of failure, increasing the potential impact of an attack and making the organization a more attractive target for cybercriminals. Diversifying dependencies can help mitigate this risk by spreading potential vulnerabilities across multiple areas.
Leaked Credentials: A high number of leaked credentials can indicate susceptibility to credential-stuffing attacks. This method, where attackers use stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access, is a common and effective tactic that is frequently a precursor to more serious incursions.
Past Breaches / Attacks: If a vendor doesn’t properly address existing vulnerabilities, it remains at risk, and if data was compromised in a previous attack, it may be used to aid subsequent attacks. As our 2024 Ransomware Report shows, these repeat attacks are happening in quicker succession by different operators, indicating that ransomware groups are monitoring each other's attacks so they can strike while a victim is still weak.
Open Critical Ports: Open ports such as RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) or SMB (Server Message Block) serve as an invitation to attackers. Identifying and securing open critical ports is vital.
Misconfigurations: Certain misconfigurations or missing configurations signal a weak cybersecurity posture. For example, the absence of SPF (Sender Policy Framework) or DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) records leaves your organization vulnerable to spoofing and phishing attacks.