Vendor onboarding integrates a new vendor into your organization's systems and processes. Cybersecurity involves assessing and mitigating the risks of granting third-party access to your data, systems, and intellectual property. A robust vendor onboarding process ensures that security considerations are addressed from the outset, minimizing the potential for data breaches, compliance violations, and other security incidents.  

How ThreatNG Helps with Secure Vendor Onboarding

ThreatNG offers a comprehensive suite of tools and intelligence to enhance the security of your vendor onboarding process:

• Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: This s designed to identify and assess the security posture of potential vendors before onboarding them. It utilizes various techniques, including domain analysis, dark web monitoring, and social media analysis, to uncover likely risks associated with the vendor.

• Domain Intelligence: This module helps assess the security of the vendor's domain and email infrastructure. ThreatNG can identify potential vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit by analyzing DNS records, subdomains, and certificates.  

• Dark Web Presence: ThreatNG monitors the dark web for mentions of the vendor, including discussions about security incidents, data breaches, or vulnerabilities. This provides early warnings about potential risks associated with the vendor.  

• Sensitive Code Exposure: If the vendor has inadvertently exposed sensitive information, such as API keys or credentials, in public code repositories, ThreatNG can detect this and alert you to the potential risk.

• Technology Stack Identification: By identifying the technologies used by the vendor, ThreatNG can help you assess their security posture and identify potential vulnerabilities that could impact your organization.

• Sentiment and Financials: This module provides insights into the vendor's financial health and reputation. Any negative news or financial instability can indicate increased risk.  

Examples of ThreatNG's Modules and Capabilities in Action:

• Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: ThreatNG identifies a potential vendor with a history of data breaches and security incidents. This information allows you to decide whether to proceed with the onboarding process or to require additional security assurances from the vendor.

• Domain Intelligence: ThreatNG discovers that a vendor's email domain lacks DMARC enforcement, making them susceptible to email spoofing and phishing attacks. This prompts you to request that the vendor implement DMARC to improve their email security before granting them access to your systems.

• Dark Web Presence: ThreatNG detects a discussion on a dark web forum about a potential vulnerability in a vendor's software component. This allows you to proactively engage with the vendor to discuss mitigation strategies and ensure they take appropriate steps to address the vulnerability.

Working with Complementary Solutions:

ThreatNG can integrate with other security solutions to enhance vendor onboarding:

• Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Platforms: TPRM platforms provide a centralized repository for managing vendor risk assessments and due diligence. ThreatNG's findings can be integrated into TPRM platforms to provide a more complete picture of vendor risk.  

• Security Ratings Services: These services provide quantitative assessments of your vendors' security posture, complementing ThreatNG's qualitative analysis.  

• Contract Management Systems: Integrating ThreatNG's findings into contract management systems can help ensure that vendor contracts explicitly include security requirements.

Benefits of Using ThreatNG for Vendor Onboarding:

• Proactive Risk Management: Identify and mitigate potential vendor risks before granting them access to your systems and data.

• Improved Due Diligence: Enhance your vendor due diligence process with comprehensive security assessments and threat intelligence.

• Streamlined Onboarding: Automate security checks and streamline the onboarding process while ensuring security best practices are followed.  

• Reduced Risk of Data Breaches: Minimize the risk of data breaches and other security incidents originating from your vendors.

• Strengthened Security Posture: Improve your overall security posture by proactively addressing risks associated with new vendors.

• Enhanced Compliance: Incorporate security assessments into your vendor onboarding process to ensure compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards.