Third Party Risk
Third-party risk in the context of cybersecurity refers to the potential for a security breach or other adverse cybersecurity event that originates from an organization's relationship with an external vendor, supplier, or partner. Essentially, it's the risk you take when you rely on another organization for services or products that interact with your systems, data, or infrastructure.
Here's why it's a growing concern:
Increased reliance on third parties: Modern businesses rely heavily on external vendors for various services, including cloud computing, software development, data storage, payment processing, etc. This interconnectedness expands the attack surface and creates new entry points for cyber threats.
Supply chain complexity: Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, with multiple tiers of vendors and subcontractors. This makes it difficult to have complete visibility into the security practices of every entity involved.
Data sharing and access: Third parties often require access to sensitive data or systems to perform their services. This creates a potential for data breaches, unauthorized access, or misuse of information if the third party's security controls are inadequate.
Examples of Third-Party Risks:
Data breaches at a vendor: A data breach at a cloud service provider could expose your organization's sensitive data stored on their servers.
Compromised software: A vulnerability in a third-party software component could be exploited to gain access to your systems.
Supply chain attacks: An attacker could compromise a vendor in your supply chain to gain access to your organization's network or systems.
Insider threats at a vendor: A malicious or negligent employee could misuse their access to your organization's data.
Key areas of Third-Party Risk:
Cybersecurity: This encompasses the vendor's overall security posture, including their ability to protect their systems and data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
Compliance: This involves ensuring the vendor complies with relevant regulations and standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS.
Financial stability: A vendor's financial instability could disrupt their operations and ability to provide services, impacting your organization.
Reputational risk: A security incident or other adverse event at a vendor could damage your organization's reputation by association.
Operational risk: Disruptions to a vendor's operations could impact your organization's ability to function effectively.
Mitigating Third-Party Risk:
Due diligence: Conduct thorough due diligence before engaging with a third party, assessing their security posture, financial stability, and compliance practices.
Contractual agreements: Include substantial cybersecurity requirements and service level agreements (SLAs) in contracts with third parties.
Access controls: Limit third-party access to only the systems and data necessary for them to perform their services.
Monitoring: Continuously monitor third parties' security posture and compliance with contractual obligations.
Incident response planning: Establish incident response plans that address potential security incidents involving third parties.
Effectively managing third-party risk is crucial for organizations to maintain a strong security posture and protect their critical assets in today's interconnected business environment.
ThreatNG offers a comprehensive suite of tools that can be highly effective in identifying, assessing, and mitigating third-party risks in cybersecurity. Here's how its capabilities can be leveraged:
1. Due Diligence and Vendor Assessment:
Deep Dive into Security Posture: ThreatNG provides a deep dive into the security posture of third parties, going beyond surface-level checks and questionnaires.
Domain Intelligence: Uncover the third party's digital footprint, including hidden subdomains, unknown IP addresses, and outdated certificates. This helps identify potential vulnerabilities and attack vectors that could be exploited.
Sensitive Code Exposure: Identify instances where the third party may have inadvertently exposed sensitive information in public code repositories, such as API keys, credentials, or internal documentation. This highlights potential security weaknesses and data leakage risks.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Gain complete visibility into the third party's cloud footprint, including sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services, misconfigurations, and potential vulnerabilities. This allows for a comprehensive assessment of cloud-related risks.
Technology Stack: Identify the technologies used by the third party, including software, services, and infrastructure. This helps assess potential compatibility issues, security risks associated with legacy systems, and the overall security posture of their technology stack.
Quantify and Prioritize Risks: ThreatNG helps quantify and prioritize risks associated with third parties.
Cyber Risk Exposure: Obtain an overall cyber risk score for each third party, considering their attack surface, vulnerabilities, and threat landscape.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: Assess the third party's susceptibility to data breaches and ransomware attacks based on their external security posture.
Data Leak Susceptibility: Evaluate the likelihood of sensitive data leaks based on exposed databases, misconfigured cloud storage, and other vulnerabilities.
Real-time Visibility: ThreatNG continuously monitors the digital assets of third parties for changes and new vulnerabilities, providing real-time visibility into their security posture.
Social Media Monitoring: Track social media for mentions of third parties that could indicate security incidents, data breaches, or reputational risks.
Dark Web Presence: Monitor the dark web for mentions of the third party about data breaches, compromised credentials, or other security incidents.
Alerting and Response: Receive alerts about new vulnerabilities, emerging threats, and changes in the security posture of third parties. This allows for proactive response and mitigation of risks.
3. Contractual Agreements and Compliance:
Informed Decision-Making: ThreatNG's comprehensive risk assessment provides valuable information for negotiating contractual agreements with third parties.
Cybersecurity Requirements: Use ThreatNG's findings to define specific cybersecurity requirements and service level agreements (SLAs) in contracts with third parties.
Compliance: Assess the third party's compliance with relevant regulations and standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS.
Ongoing Monitoring: Continuously monitor third parties' security posture and compliance with contractual obligations.
4. Incident Response Planning:
Proactive Threat Intelligence: ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide valuable information for developing and enhancing incident response plans that address potential security incidents involving third parties.
Ransomware Events and Groups: Stay informed about ransomware groups targeting your industry or specific third parties.
Compromised Credentials: Identify if any of the third party's employees' credentials have been compromised in past breaches.
Working with Complementary Solutions:
Vendor Risk Management (VRM) Platforms: Integrate ThreatNG with VRM platforms to centralize vendor information, automate risk assessments, and streamline the vendor management process.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): Feed ThreatNG's findings into your SIEM to correlate external threat intelligence with internal security events and improve threat detection.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): Integrate with TIPs to enrich threat intelligence and improve your overall security posture.
Examples with Investigation Modules:
Identify all domains and subdomains associated with the third party, including those unknown to them. This helps uncover shadow IT and potential vulnerabilities.
Analyze DNS records to identify misconfigurations or potential vulnerabilities. This can reveal weaknesses in their email security, website security, and overall infrastructure.
Identify all cloud services the third party uses, including unsanctioned services and misconfigurations. This helps assess cloud security risks and ensure compliance with cloud security policies.
Identify any code repositories used by the third party and assess them for exposed credentials, API keys, or other sensitive information. This can reveal significant security gaps and potential for data breaches.
By leveraging ThreatNG's comprehensive capabilities, organizations can effectively manage third-party risks, protect their critical assets, and maintain a strong security posture in today's interconnected business environment.
