Every day the news is filled with third-party data breaches and data leaks. And for a good reason, they often expose the protected health information and personally identifiable information of thousands or even hundreds of millions of people. For context, the Ponemon Institute estimates that the average cost of a data breach is nearly $4 million globally.

If the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused your enterprise to make a sudden, rapid switch from an on-premises-centered business model to a diverse, dispersed network of ad-hoc home offices, you may have let security and privacy measures slide a bit.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) represents an information security standard designed for organizations that store, process, or transmit credit cards and are exposed to cardholder data. The card brands themselves have advocated for the PCI standard which is administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). Given organizations are interested in compliance, many ask the question “what are the PCI DSS Security Audit Procedures”?

The Factor Analysis of Information Risk (FAIR) framework was developed by Jack Jones. FAIR is a risk management framework championed by the open group that enables organizations to analyze, measure, and understand risk. The FAIR model evaluates factors that contribute to IT risk and how they impact each other while breaking down risk by identifying and defining the risk model. FAIR is most often used to establish probabilities for the frequency and magnitude of data loss.

Outsourcing, digitization, and globalization are three of the largest trends in the last 30 years. They've brought new products and services, increased specialization, lower costs, and improved access. But they've also introduced significant cyber risk. Particularly the risk of data breaches and data leaks. For perspective, a recent study by the Ponemon Institute put the average cost of a data breach at $3.92 million. The unfortunate truth is third-parties cause a lot of data breaches.

Outsourcing, digitization, and globalization have brought us new products and services, allowed for increased specialization, lowered costs, and improved access but they've also introduced significant cyber risk. Particularly the risk of data breaches and data leaks. And with the average cost of a data breach reaching close to $4 million dollars according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, it pays to prevent them. The unfortunate truth is third-parties cause a lot of data breaches.

The amount of cyber risk the average organization is taking on has never been higher, a big part of it in the form of third-party and fourth-party risk. A household name reporting a data breach or data leak feels like a daily occurrence. And with the average cost of a data breach reaching close to $4 million dollars according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, organizations are looking for new ways to prevent them. The unfortunate truth is third-parties cause a lot of data breaches.

Organizations are taking on more cyber risk than ever before and a large part comes in the form of third-party and fourth-party risk. The news is inundated with data breaches and data leaks and the average cost of a data breach has reached nearly $4 million globally. It's safe to say that the financial cost alone is enough proof to start investing in tools to prevent data breaches. The unfortunate truth is third-parties cause data breaches.

A vulnerability assessment or vulnerability analysis is the process of identifying the security vulnerabilities in your network, systems, and hardware and taking steps to fix those security vulnerabilities. A vulnerability assessment can provide information that your IT and security teams can use to improve your company’s threat mitigation and prevention processes.

Vulnerability Management is the cornerstone of information security programs. Cybersecurity practitioners leverage vulnerability management programs to identify, classify, prioritize, remediate, and mitigate vulnerabilities most often found in software and networks. Vulnerability assessments, while not mutually exclusive with vulnerability management, are generally part of a vulnerability management program in order to identify, quantify, and prioritize vulnerabilities in a system.