Are Your Third-Party Vendors Your Biggest Security Risk?

Many businesses use third-party software and service vendors to perform a variety of functions. Their products and services can improve efficiency and profitability, streamline business operations, and offer competitive advantages. However, one drawback of using these vendors is the potential IT security risk. These risks can be wide-ranging, whether it’s outdated software, passwords that are too simple, or even worse, a general lack of knowledge and focus on IT security basics.

How third-party software and service vendors can introduce risks to a business

Third party products and services are often employed by businesses because they can help increase profitability, offer competitive advantages, and help you bring products and services more quickly to market.

However, depending on what they do, they may have access to proprietary data about your company’s employees, partners, finances, intellectual property, and strategic plans. If they don’t follow a robust approach to IT security best practices, they can introduce significant risk to your company.

Many SMBs do not pay as much attention to risks from third parties, or even their own security policies as they should. Sometimes this is due to limited resources. However, a lack of focus on IT security on the part of one or more of your vendors can create significant problems for your business, including loss of business continuity, exposing your proprietary information, and damage to your business’s reputation.

If you’re still not convinced, consider that data breaches at a third-party vendor have the potential to be quite far-reaching, impacting all of their customers. A good example of this is the 2020 Solar Winds cyber-attack.

How Data Security Management Services Can Help

By Reducing the Chance of a Data Breach

A managed IT services provider with data security management expertise can help you assess your current vendors by helping you create checklists to use when vetting third party vendors to help you assess their data security practices. They can also install software to monitor network traffic and look for unusual patterns coming from third party sources.

By Helping You Stay in Compliance

IT consulting service providers can also help ensure that you and your vendors stay in compliance with the latest data security and privacy laws. Because data security and compliance are their “bread and butter”, they have to stay up to date. With their help you can be sure you and your vendors are “doing the right thing” and avoiding significant fines by staying in compliance.

By Protecting You Against Cyber Threats

The world of cybersecurity is ever-changing. Keeping up with these IT security threats on your own company is a difficult task in itself. Making sure a third-party software or hardware vendor is also staying up to date with these threats just adds to this burden. A managed IT service provider can offload this work from you so that you can focus on your business. They will know what to do, including monitoring network traffic, and hardware, or software originating from your third-party vendors for security risks.

By Providing Around the Clock Support

Potential IT security risks, including those originating from vendors, can arise at any time, and under any circumstances. Being able to reach out to an IT provider for help can minimize the impact of a cybersecurity incident.

How GSDSolutions can Mitigate These Risks

GSDSolutions offers data security consulting services through a third-party partner for a variety of industries in the Bay Area and Central Valley. We understand the potential security risks posed by third-party vendors. Our IT team uses a number of different methods to mitigate these risks. This includes helping you develop a process for thoroughly screening your vendors, keeping an accurate inventory of hardware and software assets, and monitoring third party access to your business data around the clock for any security issues.

Give GSDSolutions a phone call at (650) 282-7695, drop us an email at getstuffdone@gsdsolutions.io or visit our website to learn more about our data security services!

Contact GSDSolutions today for a no-cost consultation to learn more about the importance of managing IT security with third party vendors. You can reach us by calling (650) 282-7695, or by emailing us at getstuffdone@gsdsolutions.io. Learn more about how we can help you put a robust cybersecurity strategy in place for your business.

GSDSolutions IT Services

GSDSolutions specializes in managed IT services, data security management, and virtual event management for businesses across the Bay Area and Central Valley.