Not All Vendors Pose Equal Risks - But All Risk Matters
It’s standard practice to assess third-party cyber risk by categorizing vendors into tiers and applying security measures accordingly. The idea is that some vendors access more sensitive data or provide more critical services than others.
However, this qualitative approach wrongly assumes we can accurately predict which vendors pose lower or higher risks. In reality, any partner granted system access introduces potential risk that could lead to a breach. Rather than leaving it to chance, we must monitor them all continuously.
The Flaws of a Tiered Strategy
There are several flaws with only monitoring higher-tier vendors:
- Risk levels change - A vendor deemed low risk today could drift into high-risk territory over time as its environment evolves.
- Unknown risks exist - Even partners with limited access may have unforeseen vulnerabilities that could serve as entry points into systems.
- Complex ecosystems - Supply chains have complex interdependencies; a breach anywhere can spread unpredictably.
Continuous Automated Monitoring for All
The solution is to implement continuous automated monitoring that covers every partner, regardless of perceived risk level. Monitoring should include:
1. Asset discovery for inventories and visibility
2. Vulnerability scanning to catch issues
3. Configuration and access monitoring
4. Anomaly detection to catch threats
With full visibility into the environments of all vendors, changes in risk levels will be detected in real-time no matter the tier or circumstance.
It's time to challenge the notion that some vendors warrant more security than others based on risk. The hard truth is that when it comes to cyber risk, all vendors matter equally – and protecting our supply chains requires continuously monitoring each one.