In case you missed it, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to implement improved cybersecurity practices at the digital supply chain on a federal level, including networks, critical infrastructure and the Nation. The cyber community has mostly been pleased with the outlined plan to bolster the nations security posture and focus on protecting against cyber attacks.
ThirdPartyTrust took a deeper dive into the Executive Order to better understand the impact on vendors and the digital supply chain. The order mentioned vendor risk, specifically, in the “Findings” section and it reads:
“Known vulnerabilities include using operating systems or hardware beyond the vendor’s support life cycle, declining to implement a vendor’s security patch, or failing to execute security specific configuration.”
With growing vendor relationships and sharing data becoming more prevalent, enterprises need to address a whole new set of problems. According to the Bomgar Survey of 608 IT professionals, on average 181 third-parties access your network a week. That’s more than double the number from 2016.
A new approach is needed to assess digital supply chain risk and here at ThirdPartyTrust, we believe a network approach is best suited to tackle this risk.
The White House is also emphasizing other topics in this executive order like workforce development, accountability and access to shared resources and technology. It’s a push to unify information sharing and technology resources across departments, which is an area in desperate need of attention. As the recent, alleged NSA-caused cyber attack proves, appropriate information sharing within governments, government allies and enterprises needs to happen to build a foundation for a better cyber security defense.
To learn more about how ThirdPartyTrust can help you manage third-party risk, request your free trial now:
