Stop Ignoring Third-Party Risk

The growing reliance on third-party providers is an increasingly uncomfortable trend for security and risk professionals. Financial pressures and efficient delivery models create great incentives for organizations to seek external support, but while business leaders focused on cost and performance perceive this as a sound business decision, the risks that these service providers carry along with these benefits often go unnoticed until it's too late. Companies need to protect themselves with formal risk management processes that include third parties in their purview. Forrester recommends that security and risk professionals offer guidance and help their sourcing and vendor management (SVM) colleagues adopt simple assessments to identify high-risk providers, get those who benefit from vendors to take ownership of the risk, and find ways to insert risk management practices within existing processes.