Over the last few years, vendor risk management has become an increasingly important focus on InfoSec teams in every industry. Data and privacy hacks are a regular fixture in the news, from global corporations to smaller companies. As the data world continues to become more interconnected, cloud-based, and open-source, these threats will continue to grow.

Sharing security data

One of the most significant benefits of this new era of vendor risk management is the ability to proactively share security data—including controls and posture—with potential partners and vendors. This allows InfoSec teams on both sides to confidently test and audit a potential integration without waiting around or slowly sending data over email.

Unfortunately, this new era of proactive data sharing also comes with risks. How can you be sure the information you are sharing with potential or new vendors will be safe and secure?

How to protect your confidential security data

Sharing security data with vendors is a necessary step in the modern vendor risk management process. Still, there are ways you can protect your confidential information and ensure privacy even during this time.

Set up expiring access: new vendor InfoSec teams only need access to your confidential data for a limited amount of time while they are evaluating your security controls. Once the partnership is in place, you will have a new set of documentation shared between teams, so setting up expiring access early on will ensure nothing is forgotten and ‘left open’ once the partnership is confirmed.
Keep an audit trail: you need to know who is accessing your secure information and when so setting up an audit trail is critical. Set alerts in case of unauthorized access, and then notify impacted parties immediately.
Require approval or NDAs for access: an additional way to protect security data is to require approval for access. If you are concerned about sharing your confidential information, you can ask vendors to sign an NDA to limit the information they can share with internal contacts or third parties.
Limit access to required users only: if you are going through the vendor approval process, it’s okay not to give an entire InfoSec team access to your information right away. Start by limiting access to required users only, and then you can expand as needed if the partnership moves forward.

Make security controls easier with Whistic

The new era of vendor risk management is here, and it requires an open-source mindset to succeed. With Whistic, InfoSec teams can securely share security information without worrying about unauthorized access. You can learn more about how Whistic is changing the vendor risk management game here.