If you’re developing a vendor risk management (VRM) plan from scratch or looking to scale your existing program, a cybersecurity IT risk assessment template can help you get started. Fortunately, you have options. In this blog, we’ve listed several templates, frameworks, and checklists that can help you create a personalized vendor cybersecurity IT risk assessment questionnaire.

Cybersecurity is a top risk for corporate directors to understand and navigate. The implications of cyber events for a company are many and growing: instantly damaged reputations that erode years of credibility and trust with customers and investors, impaired profitability from customer attrition and increased operating costs, lost intellectual property, fines and litigation, and harm to a company’s people and culture.

The world had a security wake-up call recently. Organizations were alerted to nearly 100,000 exposed industrial control systems (ICS), potentially allowing an attacker to access and control physical infrastructure such as power grids, traffic light systems, security and water systems, and more. That’s not only a stark statistic but a critical call-to-action for organizations around the world.

Supply chain attacks are increasing. According to KPMG, 73 percent of organizations have experienced at least one significant disruption from a third-party in the last three years. These findings underscore the imperative of implementing a supply chain risk management program. But as your vendor portfolio grows, assessing your vendors for cyber risk can seem daunting and raises many questions.

Third-party vendors can open the doors to growth and competitiveness, but they can also introduce operational, cyber, or financial risks. Whether you’re starting out or an established business, the process of selecting and onboarding a new vendor is a critical juncture that requires careful due diligence. But what information should you collect from your vendors, and how can you verify that it’s accurate?

In one of the most important cybersecurity regulatory developments in recent memory, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently adopted new cybersecurity requirements for publicly traded companies, creating new obligations for reporting “material” cybersecurity incidents and requiring more detailed disclosure of cybersecurity risk management, expertise, and governance. Companies are required to disclose risks in their annual reports beginning on December 15, 2023.

Welcome back to our Overcoming Cybersecurity Headwinds blog series—building on our latest webinar about third party risk with Marc Crudginton, CISO at Howard Hughes Corporation. In our previous blogs, we explored the wisdom of centralizing cyber risk management and automating third-party risk management (TPRM). Today, we will focus on future proofing your TPRM program.

In one of the most important cybersecurity regulatory developments in recent memory, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently adopted new cybersecurity disclosure requirements for publicly traded companies, including a requirement to publicly disclose a “material” cybersecurity incident in Form 8-K within four business days of determining that it is material.

Bitsight has identified nearly 100,000 exposed industrial control systems (ICS) owned by organizations around the world, potentially allowing an attacker to access and control physical infrastructure such as power grids, traffic light systems, security and water systems, and more. ICSs — a subset of operational technology (OT) — are used to manage industrial processes like water flow in municipal water systems, electricity transmission via power grids, and other critical processes.

Open port vulnerabilities pose a significant security risk to your organization. If left exposed, ports are a gateway for hackers to breach your network and steal your data. But what are open ports, why are they a security risk, and what can you do to close open port vulnerabilities? Let’s answer your open port questions.