Cybersecurity and Third-Party Risk. Gregory C. Rasner

Introduction

      Third‐party risk (or supply‐chain security) are not new disciplines, and there have been frameworks, regulatory directives, professional certifications, and organizations that all attest to its maturity. Cybersecurity could be considered more mature, since it has been around in some form since computing came of age in the 1970s. Nowadays, it's even more complex in terms of frameworks, disciplines, certifications, regulatory guidance and directives, and avenues of study. Why do the surveys, time after time, indicate that well over 50 percent of organizations do not perform any type of Third‐Party Risk Management (TPRM), and even fewer have anything other than an ad hoc cybersecurity due diligence program for vendors? Reasons for this lack of attention and collaboration can be found in hundreds, if not thousands, of breaches and security incidents that were the result of poor third‐party oversight and a lack of any due diligence and due care for the vendors' cybersecurity.

This book is designed to provide a detailed look into the problems and risks, then give specific examples of how to create a robust and active Cybersecurity Third‐Party Risk Management program. It begins by covering the basics of the due diligence processes and the vendor lifecycle, with models and illustrations on how to create these basic but necessary steps. Then it goes more in depth about the next parts in the creation of a mature program: cyber legal language, offshore vendors, connectivity security, software security, and use of a predictive reporting dashboard.

      The book is designed to not only help you build a program, but to take an existing program from one of compliance checkbox work to an active threat‐hunting practice. Many programs that do currently exist are designed and run as an obligation to “check a box” for a regulator or an internal auditor. Yet, no one has ever secured their network or data by doing only what the regulators told them to do. Security is an ongoing activity that requires its application in third‐party risk to be equally active and ongoing. Its activities and results should emulate a cyber operations or threat operations team that focuses its efforts on reducing cybersecurity threats externally at the suppliers. Get away from checking boxes and filling out remote questionnaires and take a risk‐based approach that engages your highest risk and/or most critical third parties in conversations to build trust and collaboration to lower risk for both your organization and the vendor.

Who Will Benefit Most from This Book

A superset of cybersecurity, third‐party risk, and executive leadership will benefit the most from reading this book. On the cybersecurity side, analysts to senior leadership will be able to take their information security knowledge and experience to perform the hands‐on work and management of third‐party risk, while third‐party risk professionals will better understand and appreciate the need to include a more robust cybersecurity risk domain. Executive and senior leadership in business who are not focused on cybersecurity or third‐party risk will gain an understanding of the risk, practice, and frameworks, and how to lower their risk for a cybersecurity event at their vendors.

      Looking Ahead in This Book

      This book is divided into two sections. Section 1, titled “The Basics,” lays the case for the need of a robust and active Cybersecurity Third‐Party Risk Management program as well as the necessary and basic due diligence activities and processes needed. These are not basic as in “simple,” but in terms that they are the foundation necessary to building a mature program, which is covered in Section 2, titled “Next Steps.” This section details what comes next, after you have built the basic foundation. This “Next Steps” section describes cyber legal language, cloud security, software security, connectivity security, offshore vendors, and how to build predictive reporting that focuses on the highest risk vendors.

      Chapter 1 opens with a detailed description of risk by using examples