Organizations across all industries are becoming more reliant on digital technology to get the job done. In this era of digital transformation, technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), social media, Machine Learning (ML), big data analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Augmented Reality (AR) exist to help organizations realize their strategic business objectives.

Accounting is a core function in every business. Organizations need accounting teams to track revenue and expenses, evaluate financial performance, create budgets and financial projections, and maintain compliance. Skilled accountants provide up-to-date financial information to support decision-making. Unfortunately, the word “accounting” is often followed by the word “scandal,” especially given examples such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Hertz, Lehman Brothers, and Bernie Madoff.

Across today’s interconnected business landscape, organizations are increasing their reliance on third-party vendors and service providers to streamline operations, reduce costs, and access specialized services and expertise. This increased dependency on third parties introduces significant organizational risks, including data privacy violations, operational disruptions, reputational damage, supply chain attacks, and devastating data breaches.

With third-data breaches and their subsequent financial impacts on the rise, Third-Party Risk Management is becoming a non-negotiable inclusion in an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. For those new to this risk management area, this post outlines a high-level framework for applying TPRM principles to a third-party risk context. Learn how UpGuard streamlines Vendor Risk Management >

Every cybersecurity team is being challenged to do more with less. CISOs experience top-down pressure to maximize the value of their resources, consolidate vendors as much as possible, and optimize their tool stack. And, they have unchanged expectations of keeping their organization safe across ever-growing digital supply chains. But traditional approaches to VRM often leave cybersecurity teams grappling with a tangled web of manual processes, disparate tools, and fragmented data.

Successful entrepreneurs all have one thing in common: they know how to manage business risks effectively, even as they evolve. Since the inception of the modern marketplace, and arguably before, innovative leaders have been able to assess their organizations' internal and external vulnerabilities and develop mitigation strategies accordingly.

At Bitsight, part of the Vulnerability Research team's core work involves analyzing vulnerabilities in order to create detection capabilities that can be implemented on an Internet-wide scale.

‍Since the SEC's latest cybersecurity regulations went into effect, thousands of companies have already been compelled to submit their annual Form 10-K with the novel Item 1C. Similarly, dozens of organizations have filed updated Form 8-Ks to disclose cybersecurity incidents. Slowly but surely, these public reports are helping investors become more aware of the intrinsic relationship between cyber risk and market value.

Third-party risk assessments identify, evaluate, and mitigate potential risks that third-party vendors might introduce into business operations. These processes form the foundation for a proactive risk management program, meeting regulatory requirements while safeguarding organizational assets and preventing reputational damage. Cyber risk assessments help identify any security hazards that could potentially disrupt operations and the supply chain.

A Third-Party risk assessment is a critical component of a Third-Party Risk Management program. Without understanding how to properly execute these assessments, the efficiency of your TPRM program will remain limited. This post provides a detailed six-step guide for performing third-party risk assessments in cybersecurity.

At RiskOptics, our mission is to make GRC simple, and it’s been that way since the inception of ZenGRC in 2009. With an in-house team of GRC experts and a development model focused on customer and industry challenges, we pride ourselves on being collaborative, innovative, and transparent.

Universities are increasing their reliance on third-party providers for various services, such as electronic health records, telehealth platforms, insurance billing, and mental health support. While these partnerships enhance business operations and save valuable time, they also introduce significant cybersecurity risks.

The right choice of Third-party risk assessment software will automate risk assessment workflows and boost the efficiency of your Third-Party Risk Management program. This post reviews the top eight contenders in the TPRM and supply chain risk management market to help you make the right choice for your third-party cybersecurity objectives.

As a cybersecurity company, Obrela is vigilant in monitoring the evolving regulations and how these impact our clients, especially those in the financial sector. With the introduction of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), we see a transformative step forward in the European Union’s approach to financial cyber resilience. Here’s an overview of what DORA entails and what it means for financial entities.

This week, the SEC issued a statement addressing some of the rampant confusion and inconsistencies observed under the agency’s new cyber breach disclosure rule. The statement itself addresses a technical securities law requirement, that public companies should only use Item 1.05 of Form 8-K to disclose “material” cyber breach information (instead of making voluntary or immaterial disclosures).

Whether it's because industrial control systems remain quite vulnerable to attacks, or because these systems manage valuable physical resources and uptime is essential—or a bit of both—attackers are increasingly targeting operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS).

To respond to the increasing number of federal cybersecurity recommendations and regulations, cybersecurity leaders and their teams need to be confident in the transparency and resiliency of their security processes. The key is a strong and well documented risk management program. This is imperative for the compliance or incident audits that come with regulations.

Data security is evolving. This evolution is making the need to understand what is going on with your data more critical. Teams need to be able to answer questions like, where is data being stored? Which vendor or team is using it? When is sensitive data being used? Where is data being sent?

This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned that cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are becoming more frequent and more severe. The agency urged water systems to take immediate actions to protect the nation’s drinking water. According to the EPA, there are more than 150,000 public water systems across the U.S. serving over 300 million people—virtually all of which are administered and secured at local levels of government.

Bitsight was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Cybersecurity Risk Ratings Platforms, Q2 2024 for a third consecutive time. Click here to download The Forrester Wave: Cybersecurity Risk Ratings Platforms, Q2 2024. We are incredibly proud to be highlighted as a Leader, and our placement in this report is validation of our ongoing effort to help risk and security leaders identify exposure, prioritize investment, communicate with stakeholders, and mitigate risk.

Today, we’re proud to announce that Forrester has named SecurityScorecard a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Cybersecurity Risk Ratings Platforms, Q2 2024. Forrester identified the 10 most significant vendors in cybersecurity risk ratings and scored them based on the strengths of their current offering, strategy, and market presence.

The simultaneous proliferation of outsourcing and increased interconnectedness of modern businesses has caused the third-party risk management (TPRM) landscape to evolve significantly over the last few years. Establishing a robust TPRM program is no longer just about managing risk across your organization’s third-party ecosystem or gaining an edge over your competitors.

In today’s modern business environment, nearly every organization partners with at least one third-party vendor or external service provider. Third-party service providers (web-hosting platforms, software-as-a-service companies, and other businesses that provide technology or services as part of a contract) allow organizations to focus on their primary business processes while reducing operational costs.

With economic sanctions being levied by the US against Iran and a trade war heating up with China, some security experts are cautioning that attacks targeting US critical infrastructure may be inevitable. Are electric utilities prepared to defend themselves and their facilities against these attacks?

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Things have been busy; Bitsight released a great report authored by yours truly on CISA’s KEV catalog. It’s really great if I do say so myself so I highly recommend going and giving it a glance.

We’re excited to share that we've expanded Vanta’s security and privacy training library with additional training modules, including AI Risk, Secure Coding, Insider Threat, and Social Engineering.

A third-party risk assessment pulls risk vendor risk data to help cybersecurity teams understand how to best mitigate supplier risks. Though the field of Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) is evolving to prioritize compliance, security, and supply chain risk, third-party risk assessments could also be used to uncover an organization’s exposure to financial, operational, and reputational risks stemming from its third-party network. Learn how UpGuard streamlines Third-Party Risk Management >

The cybersecurity world is no doubt aware that the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) has been experiencing issues over the last three months.

More enterprise business leaders are beginning to understand that cybersecurity risk equates to business risk—and getting a clearer sense of the impact that cyber exposures can have on the bottom line. Consider the MGM Resorts and Clorox Company cybersecurity incidents that occurred last year. Both suffered considerable attacks, reportedly led by the Scattered Spider cybercriminal group, causing widespread business disruption and substantial financial losses.

Explore how Digital Risk Protection can benefit Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in safeguarding their organizations against online threats. Understanding Digital Risk Protection Digital Risk Protection refers to the set of tools and strategies used to identify, monitor, and mitigate digital risks that organizations face in today's digitally connected world. These risks can include data breaches, cyber-attacks, brand impersonation, and other online threats.

As regulatory mandates and frameworks continue to emerge, cybersecurity leaders must continue to adapt to more than just the latest threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures. As part of our ongoing webinar series centered on compliance, SecurityScorecard’s Senior Product Marketing Manager, Devaney Devoe, moderated a discussion with Adam Bixler (Principal, Squadra Ventures), Christopher Strand (SecurityScorecard’s Global Risk Officer), and Steve Cobb (CISO, SecurityScorecard).

It feels like the number of security issues affecting vital internet-exposed assets is never-ending. No one can predict the next big vulnerability. But exposure management techniques can help prepare your organization for a wide range of issues by identifying, validating, and mobilizing your response to emerging threats. These processes also include validating fixes and issues, a well-documented mobilization process, and automatic scanning for high value assets.

SecurityScorecard recently hosted a webinar with our Co-founder and CEO, Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy, and Sue Gordon, the former Deputy Director of National Intelligence and SecurityScorecard board member. Gordon drew on her experience as a key advisor to the President and National Security Council to discuss the shared responsibility between public and private organizations in combating cyber threats, the concentration of cyber risk, and the value of easy-to-understand cybersecurity metrics.

Threat actors have responded to better protections in the operating system and improved endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities by moving down the stack to find entry points with full visibility and privileges into the stack above.

“The best part of RSA is all the amazing people in the community trying to make the world a safer place. It’s also very exciting to see all the innovation to make adversaries’ lives harder – competition and collaboration make us better.” – CEO & Co-Founder Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy The SecurityScorecard team has just returned from an incredible week in San Francisco at RSA Conference 2024!

Banks are one of the most heavily regulated business sectors, with stiff regulatory compliance obligations and close scrutiny from regulators. As such, managing regulatory compliance has become challenging for banks in recent years. Compliance failures can result in significant fines, reputational damage, bad publicity, and even lawsuits. It’s vital for banks to conduct regular compliance risk assessments to identify, evaluate and mitigate emerging risks.

Critical infrastructure services in North America face accelerating threats from both nation-states and other sophisticated threat actors. Governments globally are grappling with how to best balance incentives, support, and direct oversight. Meanwhile, critical infrastructure owners and operators face significant challenges with technology, staff resources, and expertise to better manage cyber resilience.

Third-party data breaches are growing in prominence across the healthcare sector. In 2022, 55% of healthcare organizations suffered a third-party data breach, exposing the personal healthcare data of millions of individuals to malicious actors. To combat this, healthcare organizations must implement third-party risk management strategies as part of HIPAA requirements to protect patient data and prevent these devastating data breaches.

You understand the importance of a Vendor Risk Management strategy in mitigating the impact of third-party data breaches. However, you’re still unsure about its application to different vendor cyber risk contexts. To help you bridge this application gap and leverage the complete benefits of a Vendor Risk Management process, this post outlines three common examples of vendor security risks and how a VRM program could be tailored to address them. Learn how UpGuard streamlines Vendor Risk Management >

Vendor Risk Assessment processes form the core of a Vendor Risk Management program. As such, the efficiency of a VRM program is ultimately dependent on the design of its risk assessment processes. This post guides you through the design of an efficient vendor risk assessment framework in six steps. By implementing this framework, you can establish an efficient risk assessment workflow built upon a scalable process foundation. Learn how UpGuard streamlines vendor risk assessments >

If you’re new to vendor risk assessments, this article includes a real-life example of service provider risk assessment, helping you understand their structure and the details they entail. Learn how UpGuard streamlines vendor risk assessments >

‍The process of achieving goals, whether long-term, short-term, personal, or professional, starts with harnessing the available relevant data. In fact, the more information gleaned beforehand, the more likely the mission will be a success. However, the details required for devising an effective plan exist at various granular levels, some overarching, focusing on the broader elements, and others more minute.

With a growing list of regulations adding to the pressure on already-stretched security teams, it's no surprise that many organizations are rethinking their approach to governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). Even the best-resourced security teams struggle to balance meeting regulations with pursuing their individual goals around improving security posture. The good news is that workflow automation and orchestration can help - let’s find out how.

Election security is one of the most important parts of an election in order to preserve voter safety, prevent voter fraud, and, ultimately, build public trust in the electoral process. Because of the many external pieces that must come together during the election process, election organizers must use and implement effective Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) as part of their security strategy.

The EU Cyber Diplomacy Toolbox is a framework developed by the European Union to enhance its ability to prevent, deter, and respond to malicious cyber activities that may threaten its external security. The European Commission adopted the Toolbox in 2017 as part of the EU's broader strategy to promote a global, open, stable, and secure cyberspace.

The Utah State government passed the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (UCPA) in March 2022, scheduling the law to go into effect on December 31, 2023. Utah is the fourth state in the United States to pass a state privacy law. Compared to preceding US privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA), and Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), the UCPA has a narrower scope, making the law more friendly to businesses and data controllers.

Higher education institutions are a growing target for cybercriminals due to the high volume of sensitive information and data they collect and use. From enrollment to matriculation, colleges and universities utilize student data for everything from financial aid packages to determining eligibility for coursework. According to a report by Check Point Research, the education sector (specifically higher education) has experienced significantly more cyber attacks than any other industry in recent years.

Exposure management tooling can act as an excellent source of truth for cybersecurity leaders as they communicate risk up to the board level. The visibility and data streaming from exposure management solutions makes it easier for CISOs to track security performance over time, quantify improvements in security maturity levels, establish better financial quantification of cyber risk and ensure the organization's exposure levels match up with industry averages.

Company mergers, the consolidation of cloud technologies, and the interconnected nature of digital business have all led to a more efficient, fast-paced digital economy. But these advantages have also ushered in a higher degree of cyber risk concentration that stands to threaten national security and global economies.

Snyk AppRisk Pro ships with a range of innovative, ecosystem-driven capabilities alongside new analytics tools, providing comprehensive application risk management with Snyk.

KEV! KEV! KEV! No, you aren’t standing outside a frat house while some college kids encourage their buddy Kevin to finish his beverage. Rather, it’s the sound of people extolling the virtues of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities(KEV) Catalog.

As the world becomes more and more digitally intertwined, the significance of data security cannot be overstated. Data theft, a critical threat to organizations worldwide, poses severe challenges, jeopardizing both reputational integrity and financial health. This blog post aims to dissect the concept of data theft, understand its impacts on organizations, and outline proactive measures to safeguard against such threats.