On May 5, 2022, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) formally recognized outside-in third party security ratings and vendor risk assessment in their update to Special Publication 800-161. This update to federal standards specifically cites security ratings as a “foundational capability that "provide 14028." NIST SP 800-161 was designed to standardize supply chain risk management best practices for federal agencies and industry.

Third-party data breaches are one of the most concerning issues in cybersecurity today. You need your third parties to do business, but you can’t always trust (or verify) that their cybersecurity controls are as strong as they say, no matter how many questionnaires you send out. And of course, cybercriminals know that by hitting vendors rather than every single company separately, they can get the most ill-gotten gains for their effort.

Why is it that the most impressive technologies are often the ones that go unnoticed? Sometimes what makes technology impressive is precisely that it goes unnoticed, and that is the case with the Rubrik Data Observability engine. As ransomware continues to grow as a real, costly, and persistent threat to conducting business, organizations are looking for smarter and faster ways to keep data safe and recover easily in the face of cyber attacks.

Without a doubt, partnering with third parties has many advantages, including boosting the functionalities and performance of an organization. But despite the benefits, third parties also introduce a host of risks to an organization, potentially disrupting operations, affecting financial standing, and harming reputation. An understanding of third-party risk management regulations is essential in order to protect your organization from a security breach and maintain a positive security posture.

Instantly view your organization’s cybersecurity posture + continuously monitor and verify identity.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a PDF of a cybersecurity self-assessment tool. The Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder v1.1 2019 is a self-assessment tool to help organizations better understand the effectiveness of their cybersecurity risk management efforts.

This blog is the latest in a series dedicated to Zhadnost, a Russia-aligned botnet first discovered by SecurityScorecard in March.

Cyber attacks on state and local governments continue to be on the rise. With more attacks targeting municipalities, there needs to be a push toward boosting cyber preparedness. Even though the risks remain at an all-time high for municipalities, the lack of budget and knowledge has caused officials to put cybersecurity on the back burner.

There are a lot of buzzwords and hot topics in the cyber security industry but there’s one thing we GRC professionals can not agree upon … risk assessments. Some people start with a pre-built risk register while others start by conducting internal surveys. Some re-assess risk annually, some use mathematical equations and some still use spreadsheets!