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.

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.

Digital risks are a big issue for today’s society. Digital risks can be anything from stealing sensitive information to exposing your own personal information to the public. This is why an understanding of the digital risk management process helps businesses to identify and protect themselves.

You’ve seen suspicious ads. Some were obvious — ads that claim your browser is infected with malware and you need to click immediately to remedy the situation — but likely, some weren’t obvious at all. They just looked like regular ads, and might have appeared on a site you trust. You didn’t know it (and hopefully didn’t click) but some of the ads you see regularly are malvertising.

This past year was a banner year for cybercriminals. By the end of September, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITCR) reported that the number of breaches that had taken place over the first three quarters of 2021 had exceeded the total number of breaches in 2020.

Third-party technology providers can confer huge strategic advantages to a business. It allows each organization to focus on their highest value activities, but there’s a downside; new cyber security risks come with each partnership. Third-party risk is now an integral part of business ecosystems. A solid risk management framework is required to manage risk and keep you and your customers safe.

Last week one of the country’s top banking regulators published its semi-annual report on risks to the financial system, and to no surprise cybersecurity risk was near the top. The more one ponders the findings, however, the more you can see insights about cybersecurity, internal control, and innovation that are worth the time of a compliance professional in any sector.

Risk management doesn’t belong to one person or department at an organization. It’s a shared effort—partly because it touches on multiple roles at a company and partly because it is a massive and complex undertaking. Successful CISO’s use risk management visualization and reporting to provide a clear and easy way to understand the value of their security program.

A digital security risk is any action or event that could cause loss of or damage to computer software, hardware, data, processing capability, or information. Digital risk management is an organization’s effort to keep such risks at acceptable levels. It’s crucial to understand that a risk is not the same as vulnerability. A risk is any event that could lead to an undesired outcome or loss. A vulnerability, on the other hand, is a weakness that can be exploited.