Streamline TPRM with SecurityPal’s Vendor Assess

According to SecurityScorecard, third-party attacks have led to 29% of all security breaches. Plus, an astounding 98% of organizations are affiliated with a third party that has experienced a breach. For larger enterprises, this risk increases because enterprises work with more vendors, making third-party risk management (TPRM) increasingly complex.

Does this mean that enterprises shouldn’t work with third parties? Of course not! Third-party vendors — from business partners to service providers — are essential for most modern businesses. But working with vendors requires stringent TPRM to ensure that your entire attack surface, including third and fourth party vendors, is secure.

Having answered nearly 2 million security questions, SecurityPal has deep insights into contemporary security threats and risks across various industries. In line with our mission to help organization power growth and innovation through unparalleled customer assurance, we’re excited to offer an effortless vendor assessment and TPRM solution: SecurityPal Vendor Assess. With Vendor Assess, we handle the intricacies of your vendor security review process and do the heavy lifting needed to ensure your peace of mind.

Vendor Assess Manages Third-Party Risk

Vendor Assess is an end-to-end solution that aims to offload the vendor assessment process. Every enterprise works with third parties. These could be your suppliers, manufacturers, service providers, business partners, affiliates, distributors, resellers, and agents. While third-party vendors are essential, each third party increases your attack surface and adds a potential attack vector for data breaches, cyber attacks, and more.

While cyber risks are a huge concern, third-party risks extend to every facet of your business. The most common risks associated with third-party vendors include:

• Cybersecurity Risks: This encompasses data breaches, hacking, malware, and unauthorized access to sensitive information. Weak or incomplete cybersecurity measures by your vendors can lead to significant data loss or exposure.
• Operational Risks: These risks pertain to disruptions or failures in operations, such as service outages, system downtime, inadequate capacity, or failure to meet service level agreements (SLAs).
• Compliance and Regulatory Risks: Third-party vendors must comply with relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards. Failure to meet these compliance requirements can result in legal penalties, regulatory fines, reputational damage, and operational disruptions.
• Financial Risks: It’s important to be aware of vendor financial instability, unexpected cost escalations, hidden fees, billing disputes, or contractual breaches. These can lead to financial losses, budget overruns, and strained relationships between you and your vendors.
• Reputational Risks: A vendor's actions, performance, or reputation in the market can directly impact your reputation. Negative publicity, ethical issues, breaches of trust, or poor vendor performance can fall back on you, negatively impacting your brand image and credibility.
• Strategic Risks: These risks arise from misalignment between the vendor's strategic objectives and your business goals. Changes in vendor ownership, leadership, or strategic direction can lead to conflicts of interest, service disruptions, or challenges in achieving desired outcomes.

It’s critical that you assess and continuously monitor your vendors, especially their security postures. If a third party has a vulnerable attack surface, it could unknowingly provide bad actors with access to your organization’s sensitive information. However, for large enterprises, managing security assessments of more than 150 third parties on average can be challenging, and the risk for potential vulnerabilities is significantly higher.

TPRM is an essential function of any cybersecurity program, but not all TPRM programs are created equal. With SecurityPal Vender Assess, you can turn your vendors into partners along your risk mitigation journey. At SecurityPal we’ve answered millions of security questions — many from Fortune 500 companies — so we know the modern threats and risks facing enterprises.

With Vendor Assess, we help you assess your vendors and monitor their security posture in real-time. We run regularly scheduled assessments of your vendor partners and ensure they comply with your security standards.

How Does Vendor Assess Work?

Vendor Assess does the heavy lifting of your vendor security reviews and ongoing monitoring. Our streamlined, five-step process gives you continuous visibility into your vendors’ security postures and peace of mind knowing that your third-party risk is being actively managed and monitored by a team of certified security analysts.

How Vendor Assess simplifies your vendor management:

1. You share your updated vendor list with us
2. Our dedicated team researches your vendors
3. We reach out to your vendors for any additional information needed
4. You receive a detailed, actionable report on your vendor list with risk ratings and recommendations

SecurityPal reaches out to your vendors and handles all necessary follow-ups to keep the assessment workflow on track. Using the information from the vendor assessments, SecurityPal Vendor Asses delivers well-labeled, easily digestible reports to help your team gain visibility into your third-party risk with deep insights to inform better decision making. We repeat this process per our agreed upon assessment schedule, so you never have to worry about your vendor assessments being outdated.

Streamline Vendor Assessment with SecurityPal

In today's interconnected business landscape, working with third-party vendors is essential for growth and innovation. However, it also brings significant risks, from cybersecurity threats to operational, financial, and strategic challenges. Effectively managing these risks requires robust third-party risk management (TPRM) practices.

SecurityPal's Vendor Assess offers an end-to-end solution to streamline the vendor assessment process and mitigate third-party risks. With deep insights into contemporary security threats and risks, SecurityPal can help you assess and monitor your vendors' security postures, ensuring ongoing assurance and trust.

Ready to enhance your TPRM practices? Contact SecurityPal today to learn more about Vendor Assess and how it can help you manage and mitigate third-party risks seamlessly. Let's turn your vendors into trusted partners along your risk mitigation journey.