When you are interviewing a vendor or potential vendor, how do you assess vendor security and third-party risk management? Vendor security best practices can prevent serious and costly data breaches and cybersecurity challenges while keeping your business running smoothly and effectively.
Likewise, you are connected to every vendor you work with. Their issues become your issues. If your new vendor has a major data breach, your business and customers will also pay the price.
The security questions to ask vendors can span the categories of data privacy, access control, monitoring, and more. Learning how to assess vendor security risks can help you mitigate issues and prevent serious issues from happening in the first place.
Vendor security affects businesses of all sizes. “Every business today runs on technology. Even a taco cart uses a little payment thing that you swipe your card in,” said Michael Magyar, virtual chief security officer (vCISO) at Trava Security, emphasizing the importance of cybersecurity at all levels.
Key Security Questions to Ask Vendors
Your vendor cybersecurity checklist should cover the following categories:
- General security practices: Ask your potential vendors questions such as, “Do you have a cybersecurity program?” “What certifications do you have?” “How is your data protected?” “Can you share the results of your most recent security audit?”
- Data protection and privacy: Under this critical category, you will want to inquire about data encryption processes, compliance with regulations, and data privacy practices. Determine what security measures are already in place to prevent data breaches and ask to see formal data policies.
- Access control and authentication: If your potential partner does not use multifactor authentication, single sign-on, and role-based access, you will likely want to look elsewhere. Ask about these nonnegotiable access control and authentication practices to ensure that your vendors take extra steps for security. According to Magyar, “If we are able to enable multifactor authentication, then that’s a good indication that there’s some security there.”
- Incident response and monitoring: How do potential vendors handle data breaches and logs? What regular incident response practices are in place? What does ongoing monitoring look like? You will also want to learn more about their communication practices.
All of these questions and more can help you assess vendor security, avoid third-party vendor security risks, and find the best possible fit for your organization.
Red Flags to Watch for
While you are talking with vendors about their cybersecurity practices, listen carefully to what they say — and what they don’t say or can’t answer. Beware of vendors who are secretive about security practices, as well as those who lack certifications and transparency, in particular.
“If they receive disclosures and they remediate those quickly, that can be a good indication that they actually care about security,” Magyar said, adding that fighting researchers “could be a red flag.”
Other potential red flags include a history of data breaches and cybersecurity issues and a lack of training for employees and partners.
Best Practices for Evaluating Vendors
When you are evaluating a vendor for security purposes, make sure you take these three steps:
- Conduct a security assessment: Take the time to assess the vendor’s security practices with a standard assessment. You can also work with a cybersecurity pro to conduct these critical security assessments.
- Require security clauses in contracts: Clearly define the vendor’s role and responsibilities when it comes to sensitive security information. If they aren’t willing to put it in writing, their security is probably subpar.
- Develop incident response plans: If a data breach or other cybersecurity issue does happen, how will you handle it? Who will be in charge of what? In the wake of a vendor security incident, Magyar said, “We should start thinking about calling our lawyers, calling our incident response firms that hopefully we have on retainer, and calling our insurance companies. We need to think about the information that could be impacted, but also which of our systems could be impacted.” An incident response plan is a must.
As with any plan, regular, open, and honest communication is always a best practice.
Be Proactive, Not Reactive
It is always better to be proactive, plan ahead, and prepare for the worst while expecting the best. If you’re more reactive, you will likely scramble to manage a serious incident without the plans and preparation you need to succeed.
Trava Security provides compliance and cybersecurity services for growth companies, and we integrate security into every element of service delivery to support your business. We can help your organization be more proactive with vendor security, cybersecurity, and compliance. If you are interested in taking the next step and being more proactive with your vendor management, book an intro call with one of our experts to learn more about taking the best possible care of your business.