Businesses increasingly run on software, which, unbeknownst to its developers, can contain vulnerabilities that attackers often discover and exploit before a patch is available. This makes zero day attacks inevitable, but you can reduce their impact in your network and across your supply chain if you’re prepared to act fast.
Software vulnerabilities are one of the leading threats to an organization's cybersecurity posture, yet recent research from Bitsight reveals that enterprises affected by software vulnerabilities resolve them at a typical compound rate1 of only about 5% per month compounded continuously. However, there is evidence of much faster remediation for certain classes of vulnerabilities.
Businesses are using more SaaS applications than ever, with an average of 110 apps per organization. This proliferation of third-party applications means increasingly more customer and employee data is handled by external vendors. Ensuring your third-party vendors are secure by tracking risk, conducting reviews, and responding to issues is a security best practice and compliance requirement. Unfortunately, this process is often a manual — and expensive — one.
Cybercriminals are sneaky. They know that the weakest link in an organization’s cyber defenses is its supply chain. In fact, supply chain attacks are now the avenue of choice for hackers. Consider the facts.
On average, organizations deploy 47 different cybersecurity solutions and technologies. This puts security, IT, and VRM teams in a difficult position, working with various tools that don’t integrate. One-third of organizations identify “non-integration of security tools” as a major roadblock to getting the total value of their investments.
Waves of change are constantly disrupting companies of all sizes around the world, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity. Digital infrastructure keeps expanding, work models constantly change, and the web between businesses gets more and more intertwined. It’s no surprise that CISOs and risk leaders are evolving. A majority of boards now see cyber risk as business risk, so they’re asking hard questions around risk and exposure.
We’ve entered the fourth and final week of National Supply Chain Integrity Month, an initiative started by CISA and other government agencies to highlight the importance of securing our nation’s most critical systems and ensuring they stay resilient. I started off the month with a post about maturing your third-party risk management program, and followed that up with two more posts dedicated to securing the small business supply chain and streamlining procurement.
