Though very helpful in representing the efficacy of a service provider’s third-party risk management program, SOC reports aren’t always available. Some service providers either don’t have the budget for a SOC report or are unwilling to undergo the laborious process of an SSAE-18 audit. While a lack of a SOC report should raise alarm bells during the due diligence process, it shouldn’t necessarily result in the disqualification of a prospective vendor.

FedRAMP refers to the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, a US government-created program to smooth the connection between its federal agencies and cloud service providers. The General Services Administration (GSA) established FedRAMP Program Management Office (FedRAMP PMO) to help achieve the following goals: This post will examine the benefits of using FedRAMP and will provide an overview of the system and its requirements for cloud service offerings (CSOs).

The following list offers three effective strategies for keeping your board informed of the business’s third-party risk exposure and the efficacy of its Third-Party Risk Management program.

Exposure management in cybersecurity is a set of processes that helps organizations view their entire attack surface and understand which areas in their IT infrastructure are most exposed to cyber threats. Organizations can then take the necessary steps to reduce their cyber risk exposure through risk mitigation and risk remediation steps. Exposure management goes hand in hand with attack surface management (ASM) and threat and vulnerability intelligence.

Cyber risk governance (also called cyber risk governance or governance, risk, and compliance — GRC) and cyber risk management are often used interchangeably, but they are actually very different parts of the way an organization achieves data protection. While cybersecurity risk management focuses on implementing cybersecurity controls, cyber risk governance is more concerned with the strategy behind that implementation.

Because unmanaged assets are not continuously monitored for security risks, they likely contain cybersecurity exposures, like software vulnerabilities and cloud security misconfigurations. When these assets are connected to the internet, they become active attack vectors heightening your risk of suffering a data breach. If you’re looking for ideas for reducing your organization’s attack surface, start by locating and decommissioning unmanaged internet-facing assets.

A large attack surface poses significant security risks for organizations. It provides hackers with numerous opportunities to access your sensitive data. The process of attack surface reduction involves reducing all possible entry points to your sensitive resources. This is a fundamental cybersecurity practice that's critical for data breach mitigation.

PCI DSS compliance is mandatory for all entities processing cardholder data, including your third-party vendors. Security reports provide a window into a vendor’s information security program, uncovering their security controls strategy and its alignment with regulations like the PCI DSS. The following template will give you a high-level understanding of each vendor’s degree of compliance with PCI DSS and uncover potential compliance gaps requiring deeper investigation.

IBM’s former executive chairman and CEO, Ginni Rometty — who created a 6000-strong Security Business Unit at IBM to counter cybercrime in 2015 — described data as a game-changing source of competitive advantage for the 21st century. Rometty noted that cybercrime is and should be the biggest threat to every industry and organization.

Insurance companies are among the businesses more reliant than ever on technology and information systems for daily processes. Insurance technology, or insurtech, improves the efficiency of the insurance industry but can also increase attack surfaces, making the data insurers collect more vulnerable to theft.