Reducing Third-Party Cyber Risk in 2022: 5 Resolutions to Follow

Businesses and other organisations operate in a complex environment. Each have multiple partners and supply-chain vendors with whom they exchange information. Increasingly this information exchange is via digital channels and incorporates integration between the IT systems of the various organisations. While this integration has made business transactions much more straightforward and has provided widespread benefits, it has also increased cybersecurity risk.

Planning a cybersecurity strategy and deploying defences no longer stops at the network perimeter or an organisation's endpoints. The cybersecurity profile and hygiene of the businesses in the supply chain have to be evaluated on an ongoing basis to ensure that their IT systems do not provide a gateway for criminals to attack your networks and applications.

Most organisations do not have the skills to audit the cybersecurity posture of their suppliers. Panorays addresses this problem by enabling organisations of all sizes to assess the risk from third-party suppliers. Visit the Panorays website for details on how to automate, accelerate and scale your third-party security process.

Panorays combines automated, dynamic security questionnaires with external attack surface assessments and business context to provide organisations with a rapid, accurate view of supplier cyber risk. With Panorays, you can dramatically speed up your third-party security evaluation process, streamline collaboration and remediation between teams and suppliers, eliminate manual questionnaires, gain continuous visibility, and build trust within business relationships.

Connect with Panorays Experts at Cyber Expo

Experts from Panorays will be attending Cyber Expo & Conference Ireland 2022. Panorays will have a presence in the Expo Hall, where you can chat with them about their broad range of third-party risk assessment and management solutions. They will also be part of the expert presentations and panel discussions within the Compliance & Third-Party Risk Management conference stream. The Cyber Expo & Conference Ireland is on the 28th of April 2022 in The Leopardstown Pavilion at Leopardstown Racecourse, and you can register to attend via this Eventbrite page.

If you would like to chat with an expert about Panorays' third-party risk solutions outside of the Cyber Expo & Conference, then contact Renaissance.

Read on for five resolutions that Panorays recommends businesses adopt in 2022 to reduce third-party risk.

1 - Assess Your Suppliers

You need to understand the risk from suppliers. This understanding needs to cover both the external threat to their systems and their systems' internal risks. Panorays' solutions include an external attack surface assessment, combined with automated, customisable security questionnaires that assess internal policies while also considering the business context. This combined approach delivers comprehensive visibility of a supplier's cyber risk.

2 - Say Goodbye to Spreadsheets

Many businesses that do rudimentary supplier evaluations use spreadsheets with assessment questions they have built up over time. They send these to suppliers to complete and return. This is a slow and often ineffective process that captures incomplete data and is only a partial snapshot at a specific date. Panorays' automated, dynamic questionnaires are a game-changer, allowing you to receive responses more quickly and onboard vendors faster. You can choose a standard template questionnaire or customise your own.

3 - Consider Business Context

The risk from a particular supplier will vary depending on how they interface with an organisation. If there is no direct IT system integration, the risk will be less than with another supplier who does have direct access to read and update a business system. While there will still be a risk if the interaction is via email for orders and invoicing (email phishing is a threat), knowing the context of the business relationship and interactions allows prioritisation to manage risk at the appropriate level correctly.

4 - Continuously Monitor

The cybersecurity threat landscape is constantly changing. This means that assessing the risk from suppliers can't be a one-off activity that is done once and forgotten. The Panorays' risk assessment solutions allow for ongoing monitoring of the external threat vulnerabilities of a supplier over time. Plus, automated periodic questionnaires that suppliers have to complete about their internal systems are part of the process.

5 - Communicate with Stakeholders

Cybersecurity defence for supply chain networks requires efficient communication between all parties involved. It is often the case that small suppliers do not have expertise in cybersecurity. It can be challenging for them to supply the information required to assess risk. Easy two-way communication is essential to ensure rapid resolution of any bottlenecks in the risk assessment and vendor approval process. The Panorays solution enables seamless two-way communication during cybersecurity risk assessment processes.