Due diligence is one of the most important steps before starting a partnership with a third-party business, as it reveals any hidden risks or vulnerabilities that could harm your network. In this blog, we will define third-party due diligence, explore the benefits of conducting cybersecurity due diligence, and describe how to get started.

Forrester recently predicted that in 2022, 60% of security incidents would involve third parties. Yikes! With such a large percentage of incidents taking place outside the confines of their organizations, corporate leaders need to know what to do to protect their business. So, here is a list of items to address to succeed at supply chain risk (SCR) management.

The latest Internet Security Report, produced by the WatchGuard Threat Lab team, compiles analysis detailing malware evolution and trends based on data collected from 35,180 Firebox devices worldwide. Its key findings are as follows: This rate of incidents that the report has outlined for Q3 2021 does not seem to have decreased in severity in recent months. For these reasons, organizations should adopt several measures in order to be better prepared for upcoming threats.

As cybersecurity regulations continue to tighten their grip on vendor security, a greater weight of responsibility is expected to fall on Third-Party Risk Management Programs. So if you're currently struggling to keep up with your vendor security due diligence, your workflow congestion will only worsen if a scalable and streamline vendor risk management program isn't achieved.

Advanced cybersecurity threats have heightened the harm of data breaches. At the same time, individuals have become increasingly aware of the information they share with companies, and expect organizations to protect that sensitive information. These two trends have led companies to invest in information security and data privacy practices.

It’s not easy to prepare for the natural disasters that might happen and devastate your business. Still, just as civil defense teams prepare for hurricanes, floods, heat waves and other adverse natural events, businesses need to develop a solid plan to confront the same.

The increased connectivity in modern vehicles adds convenience to drivers and passengers. However, it also sets in motion a proliferation of new cyber threats. Automotive manufacturers and suppliers are working to protect against these threats, identifying and implementing best practices needed to make modern vehicles more resistant to cyber-attacks.

Since the start of the pandemic, the cyber insurance industry has been facing its biggest challenge to date. A ransomware crime spree is demonstrating the speed and scale of cyber risk and how this type of risk is unlike any other insurable risk. The number of ransomware attacks increased by 150%. Total ransoms paid are up 311%. The dramatic rise in frequency and severity resulted in a record high loss ratio of 67% for insurance carriers.

The growing wave of cybercrime targets businesses in every industry, and law firms are no exception. With many unique cybersecurity risks, law firms are more onerous to secure than other organizations. In addition to having to fend off threats from cybercriminals, they must also overcome the threat posed by hacktivists and nation-states. Law firms are especially attractive to bad actors because attorneys need access to highly sensitive data to provide legal services.

The second a system is connected to a network, it becomes vulnerable to a cyber attack. We’ve seen news of companies experiencing cyber attacks across different industries more often than we can count. But now that the automotive industry has joined the digital bandwagon, cybersecurity threats and attacks are also becoming an issue.

It's easy for cybersecurity teams to think they're doing everything to stay ahead of data breaches and cyberattacks in this post-pandemic era. For instance, you've probably rallied qualified experts to augment your IT ecosystem and supplied them with state-of-the-art threat detection and mitigation technologies that offer real-time insight into your infrastructure security.

Enterprise risk management (ERM) can be a challenging endeavor – but a rewarding one, too. While the benefits uncovered by effective ERM don’t always add to the balance sheet directly, they do help a company’s resilience in the face of approaching dangers.

A risk assessment is a crucial first step to develop your company’s risk management program. The assessment process itself begins with identifying all potential risks; determining your “risk universe” is a simple and effective way of defining and categorizing these key risks.

The threat landscape is expanding and security professionals are barely keeping up. On a daily basis, CISOs and cybersecurity staff need to contend with new malware variants, data breach attempts, ransomware attacks, zero-day exploits - all while ensuring uninterrupted dedication to vendor risk mitigation efforts. With so many cyber threats testing your cyber resilience at once, where should you focus your cybersecurity efforts?

This blog was written by an independent guest blogger. There are more online stores and services available than ever, and you are able to shop for almost anything online whether it's groceries or insurance. There are many ways to protect yourself while browsing the internet, and one of those ways is to choose reputable businesses with strong security. Although there are standards for online businesses to follow, some have better safety measures in place than others.

The supply chain is under a historic amount of pressure, but the strain on its cybersecurity and risk management may be in even worse condition. As 2021 draws to a close, the global supply chain is in a state comparable to rush-hour traffic in bad weather. Everything seems to be backed up whether due to supply and demand issues, wait times at shipping ports, or any number of other delays.

Third-party risk management (TPRM) has grown in prominence as organizations increase their reliance on external parties, from cloud providers to credit card processors. As more enterprises invest in this critical business function, certain best practices are becoming key to a successful TPRM program.

Following the 2021 cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline that caused a nationwide supply-chain disruption, numerous cybersecurity companies and federal agencies increased their efforts to find and shut down ransomware groups and curb the rise of cyberattacks. Those efforts have resulted in the shutdown of ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) groups such as DarkSide and REvil, which had been targeting critical infrastructure including healthcare providers of financial systems.

Businesses have always had to manage risk – everything from operational, financial, or strategic risks; to other risks that are reputational, regulatory, or cybersecurity-related. So how does enterprise risk management (ERM) work today, when so many businesses are moving so much of their operations into the cloud? How can CISOs and other senior executives take traditional ERM principles and apply them to the cloud-based technology that underpins so much of the modern enterprise?

Risk culture is the set of shared beliefs, attitudes, and understanding among a group, usually in a corporate environment, about risk and risk management practices. A company has a strong risk culture when all employees understand the business and regulatory landscape in which the organization functions, and what risks are acceptable within that landscape to achieve business objectives.

You can't do business without your vendors. They support critical elements of your organization, from cloud storage services to payment processing to physical items like office supplies or physical components. Your vendors make your organization run more efficiently – but sometimes at a risk to your financial, reputational and operational resiliency.

By 2025, there will be more than 100 zettabytes of data stored in the cloud – that’s a lot of data! With more applications needing to process a significant amount of data in real-time, there is a shift in demand for distributed cloud and edge computing. Fortunately, the distributed cloud brings many impressive benefits to organizations – generating immense cost savings, greater scalability, and reaching resource-intensive business demands.

The past two years have brought about significant disruptions to global supply chains. Recent headlines have focused on labor shortages and their impact on everything from product production to shipping delays. However, another, more significant supply chain issue should be top of mind for every organization: supply chain attacks.

As organizations look to take their 2022 security concerns head-on, they need to create resilient cybersecurity programs that help them make smarter, faster, informed decisions. In our recent webinar, I had the pleasure of chatting with security professionals Mike Wilkes from SecurityScorecard, Scott Fuller from Access Health, and John Beal from St. Charles Health. They discuss the challenges they face and how their security plans for 2022 to mitigate risk across their entire ecosystem.

Most organizations use at least some (and perhaps many) external vendors in their daily operations, sometimes even to provide mission-critical services or supplies; we’ve discussed them before as third-party vendors and the risks they bring. Indeed, most businesses today already consider third-party risk management in their overall cybersecurity protocols.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud platform designed to meet the growing demand for cloud computing worldwide. AWS provides a set of cloud services such as storage, analytics, blockchain, business applications, security, and machine learning. Within this cloud environment is Amazon Simple Storage Services (S3), a cloud storage solution bringing scalability, data availability, security, and performance to companies of any size through so-called “buckets” or data containers.

The 2022 new year is here! That means it’s time to bid farewell to the winter of 2021. At the same time, looking at security trends can give us insight into the future. Last year was a record-breaking year for data breaches. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), the number of publicly reported 2021 breaches in the first three quarters of this year exceeded the total number of incidents in the entirety of 2020.

The need for versatile and affordable solutions for storing and processing data in enterprises makes cloud computing an increasingly attractive IT strategy. Cloud computing provides flexible and easy-to-use solutions. It can also be more cost-effective than traditional storage methods that require a physical server and hardware at your corporate premises, which is one of the reasons why businesses often make the switch.

Managing third-party risk is a bit like throwing a fancy party. Everyone wants to attend, but you have to assure that only the most essential and top-rated VIPs get past the velvet rope. So you check attendees’ credentials at the door. Every company uses a third-party vendor or contractor at some point. Whether you are purchasing raw materials or outsourcing specialized processes, working with third parties can help you achieve a competitive advantage and cost savings.

Data theft can devastate any company, resulting in lost profits, regulatory enforcement, litigation, and reputational damage that can be difficult to overcome. Every organization must protect its customer data and assure that sensitive information is kept safe. That said, the data in your company’s possession is held in different states – and each of these states has particular vulnerabilities. A security tactic that works for one state may be inefficient for another.

Cybersecurity professionals are facing an unprecedented amount of scrutiny. Not only are they responsible for securing and protecting their organizations, but they also need to prove that their ideas and strategies for doing so have a meaningful impact. This can be hard when the threat landscape is constantly changing and new tactics to fight cyberattacks shift regularly.

Similar to a home inspection, M&A software due diligence helps organizations assess the risk of an investment. When a company buys another company, the due diligence process is analogous to a home inspection during a real estate transaction. A buyer sees only so much when they tour a home—enough to know they like it and to assess the value, but not enough identify hidden problems that might devalue the property. An in-depth assessment requires time and expertise.