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Cyber incidents among suppliers can lead to disruption, reputation damage, regulatory fines and more. We often hear that Procurement struggles to address these risks, while Information Security teams lack the visibility and input needed to influence decisions effectively. Neither have the resources to tackle this at scale.
Those challenges and more will be approached in this blog post. Hopefully you’ll discover a path to better collaboration across functions and greater risk management for your organization.
Align your Procurement and Information Security teams
Third-party cyber risk management often suffers from a disconnect between Information Security and Procurement.
As Renee Murphy explained in the webinar, Information Security prioritizes data security, while Procurement focuses on cost and contract terms. This misalignment can lead to gaps in understanding, process and – ultimately – risk management.
A framework that respects each team’s perspective while fostering communication can bridge this gap, creating a unified approach that strengthens supplier relationships and mitigates risk.
Clear roles between Infomration Security and Procurement are essential for effective third-party risk management, especially with limited time and resources within both departments.
The Information Security team should set security standards. They should consider the risks posed by each supplier and how they might be mitigated. Procurement take these standard rules and enforce them through contracts and vendor management. Technology-enabled workflows re-engage the Security team automatically when their input is required.
This approach ensures that both teams operate within their expertise, supporting efficient risk management without overloading resources.
Maturing into proactive risk management requires visibility (and context) of huge amounts of data, shared between disconnected stakeholders, which triggers the correct activity every time. This is a strong use-case for automation.
Automation can enforce standards beginning with vendor selection and registration. It allows continuous monitoring to ensure these standards are maintained throughout the contract lifecycle. It co-ordinates risk management activity across stakeholders when required. All of which can be audited and reported upon in-line with your policies.
By embracing automation, you enable data-sharing between Information Security and Procurement without time-consuming (and inconsistent) back-and-forth conversations.
Technology-enabled collaboration helps Information Security and Procurement teams to maintain effective standards and catch issues early. Context-rich information allows them to focus on high-impact activity instead of manual processes.
The benefits aren’t just internal. Effective automation powers collaborative relationships with suppliers, aligning them with your security standards in a mutually beneficial way.
Through codified standards and configured automations, the organization’s cybersecurity standards can be enforced consistently across third parties. This can mitigate threats ranging from reputational harm to regulatory enforcement.
apexanalytix supports this, with continuous monitoring to detect emerging lapses in standards or real-world cyber attacks against vendors. Clear dashboards report levels of compliance (supporting enforcement and audit). All alongside every other supplier risk you manage in your ecosystem.
