Due to increased outsourcing, digitization, and globalization, vendor risk management has become a top concern for CISOs and senior management around the world. These three forces have led to better products and services for consumers while giving organizations the ability to focus on core competencies while reducing costs and accessing new, global markets. That's the good news, the bad news is these same forces introduce significant cyber risk, particularly data breaches and data leaks.

Outsourcing, digitization, and globalization have made vendor risk management a top priority for CISOs and senior management alike. These forces have led to innovative products and services, increased specialization, lower costs, and increased access for customers and organizations alike. However, they've also introduced significant cyber risk, particularly the risk of unintended data exposure in the form of a data breach or data leak.

In casual conversation, threats, vulnerabilities, and risks are often talked about interchangeably. The reality is that the three are quite different. Threats represent something that might happen. Vulnerabilities show that systems have inherent weaknesses attackers may exploit. Risks keep business owners up at night by shining a light on potential harm inherent in running an enterprise.

Robust vendor risk management practices has never been more important. It is increasingly one of the top concerns of CISOs around the world. This is because outsourcing, digitization, and globalization have changed the way we do business over the last few decades. These forces have led to innovation in products and services, the ability to focus on core competencies, reduced costs, and new global markets.

The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act was signed into law on July 30, 2002. The law drafted by congressmen Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley aimed to improve corporate financial governance and accountability while protecting shareholders from accounting errors and fraudulent activity. The real fuel for the SOX law came from the inappropriate financial conduct of three large companies Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom.

There are a lot of security ratings providers now, and choosing the right one can be overwhelming. That's why we wrote this post to make it as easy as possible to help you compare RiskRecon and UpGuard. Regardless of whether you're a CISO, Vice President of Security or an individual contributor, it's safe to say you understand how important cybersecurity risk management is.

Risk management has become a veritable alphabet soup. The advent of the digital age is partly to blame. Virtually every organization is “going digital,” in a growing number of areas. Retail is now “e-tail”; manufacturing plants are increasingly automated; nearly every step of the hiring and contracting process happens online, from the application process to background checks to payroll and beyond.

There are a lot of security ratings platforms out there, and choosing the right one can be overwhelming. We've written the post to make it as easy as possible for you to compare BitSight and UpGuard. Regardless of whether you're a CISO, Vice President of Security or an individual contributor, it's safe to say you understand the importance of cybersecurity risk management.

The old adage warns “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The saying becomes even more pointed for threats that, unfortunately, do not yet have a cure. But the lessons of risk management offer a path forward, where prevention takes the form of avoiding, mitigating or reducing risks. As people and organizations confront COVID-19, the novel threat has inspired an array of new strategies to combat the pandemic.

Chances are you understand the impact of poor risk management, particularly third-party risk management and vendor risk management, on your organization's reputation. Technology has increased the speed and scale of commerce and communication, and in turn, has increased your organization's exposure to cybersecurity risk, particularly cyber threats that lead to data breaches and cyber attacks.

Whether you're a CISO, Vice President or individual contributor, you understand that information technology has changed how we do business, for better and for worse. Technology has brought speed, scale, and better customer experience to all aspects of commerce and communication, but it has also increased cybersecurity risk, particularly data breaches, cyber attacks, and other cyber threats.

Earlier this week, we shared the Reciprocity response to COVID-19. As the seriousness of this pandemic grows, our thoughts are with all of our employees, customers, and partners who are affected. We want to reiterate that our priority is to uphold our commitment to our customers. We know that many of you are concerned about the impact on your business operations, specifically supply chain issues you might be experiencing or anticipating.

First released in 1996, Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) is a framework developed by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) that can help you create and implement strategies around IT management and IT governance. The COBIT management framework helps you deal with the risks to enterprise IT and the impacts those risks can have on your company, business processes, and IT systems.

The retail industry is undergoing an incredible transformation as emerging technologies, omnichannel shopping, as well as digital and social media, compel organizations to figure out how to operate more efficiently and better accommodate customers. Leaders of companies in the retail industry understand the importance of the digital forces at work in the sector and are looking more closely at the inherent risks these digital forces present.

Business partnerships require trust, but knowing which vendors you can trust to protect your customer's PII and PHI is difficult. With the rise of information technology, there are countless ways that trust can be broken, whether intentionally or unintentionally. As a starting point, you need additional information about information security policies, internal security practices, incident response and disaster recovery plans, and any past security incidents.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) does a great job of outlining how an organization should go about protecting cardholder data. Most organizations take the best practices from the PCI council and implement a strong information security strategy bent on enforcing PCI standards, compliance requirements, and vulnerability management. What happens when an organization doesn’t follow the rules as they should or they suffer a data breach because of negligence?

System and Organization Controls for Service Organizations 2 (SOC 2) compliance isn’t mandatory. No industry requires a SOC 2 report. Nor is SOC 2 compliance law or regulation. But your service organization ought to consider investing in the technical audit required for a SOC 2 report. Not only do many companies expect SOC 2 compliance from their service providers, but having a SOC 2 report attesting to compliance confers added benefits, as well.

The risk of a data breach with significant financial consequences and damage to brand equity is the fear of most large publicly traded companies. But many smaller businesses wrongly assume they are too small to be on the radar of the threat actors. The truth is that it is all about the data, and small businesses often have less well-guarded and well-defined structures for their data stores.

Congratulations, you have achieved PCI compliance! Now comes the hard part, staying compliant. Remember, it was a great deal of work to get your environment where it needed to be for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Organizations spend a fair amount of money getting systems, networks, and people exactly where they need to be for cardholder data protection.