Assessing the Security of Vendors and Partners
How to assess third-party security risk
Every vendor or partner that connects to a company's systems, whether to process payments, host data or integrate a feature, expands the business's attack surface, no matter how robust internal security is. Assessing its security before signing a contract means reviewing certifications, data handling policies and its incident history, to understand whether that third party represents an acceptable risk or a dangerous entry point. A very well-known case in the industry is an attack that didn't breach the target company directly, but a small vendor with access to its network, which was the weakest link in the whole chain; that's why treating third-party security as an integral part of the purchasing process, and not as an extra formality, protects the business from risks that often stay off the radar.