How Reliable Risk Data Unlocks Vendor Engagement

Written by: Bob Maley

Imagine your company is evaluated by a potential client, only to discover that the intelligence they rely on is riddled with inaccuracies. That’s exactly what happened to us at Black Kite recently.

We were being evaluated as a vendor by a prospective customer who at the time was using a competing third-party risk management (TPRM) solution. They used that solution to pull a report on Black Kite, but the “intelligence” they shared with us was way off. The report found a lot of assets in our digital footprint that frankly didn’t exist. Because they were adamant they trusted the data, we investigated further. Turns out, those assets were showing up as a result of shadow IT and weren’t really in our environment at all. The fact that their solution failed to provide accurate data while ours did closed the deal.

That’s how important accurate data is in TPRM. You need to know what exactly is happening with your vendors to assess the risk they pose to your business, and you need to be able to share accurate data with your vendors to take action. On many occasions, we’ve seen Black Kite customers share data with their third parties that those third parties wouldn’t have had access to otherwise, down to the asset impacted with step-by-step remediation guidance. This helps vendors address issues faster and more accurately, boosting trust and collaboration.

This is why good data is the key to unlocking vendor engagement for collaborative risk remediation and reduction. It gets their attention because it’s accurate, detailed, and in many cases, completely new to them. 

The More Connected We Are, the More We Need Accurate Data

Companies are more connected than ever, sharing data, processes, tools, and platforms with an expanding network of third parties to operate and grow their businesses. According to one report, 182 vendors connect to the average enterprise’s systems weekly. 

But fast-paced IT growth can lead to increased gaps and vulnerabilities that attackers are looking to exploit. Third-party breaches and other security incidents can significantly harm a company’s ability to maintain operational continuity and safeguard its reputation. So having a third-party risk management program to identify, quantify, prioritize, and mitigate these cybersecurity risks is critical.

However, traditional episodic risk assessments impose a heavy burden on TPRM teams and vendors alike, as they often use manual processes, spending hundreds of hours pulling and analyzing data. It takes most (92% of) companies an average of 31 days to complete a control assessment, while 40% require up to 61 days. Understandably, this dynamic can cause a lot of friction between companies and their vendors. Risk conversations can be challenging and adversarial.

But there’s a better way forward. With the right technology and processes, your company can create a robust, agile risk management program powered by continuous and accurate risk data. 

So, how can your organization leverage accurate data to build these essential relationships?

Use Good Data to Get Your Vendor’s Full Attention

By consistently providing accurate, actionable risk data, companies not only enhance their own security posture but also build trust and cooperation with their vendors, laying the groundwork for a more resilient, collaborative risk management ecosystem.

Here are a few best practices you can adopt to create reliable risk data and share it with partners:

1. Collect comprehensive data:

Engage with a cyber risk intelligence provider to access up-to-date, high-quality risk data, including information about third and fourth+ parties that can be used to make critical business, operational, and security decisions. However, remember that not all risk intelligence vendors are created equal — choose one that offers standards-based ratings to gain a single version of truth.

2. Focus on the right alerts:

When high-profile cyber events occur, it’s crucial to have immediate visibility into which vendors are at risk to notify them to take action. For example, you should know whether they’re affected by a data breach, ransomware, or known exploitable vulnerabilities – as well as the context on how it might affect your business, enabling TPRM teams to separate serious threats from noise. Importantly, this information can be communicated to vendors to guide their response.

3. Create a robust and agile risk assessment program:

Instead of executing episodic assessments that capture static data, you can build a continuous risk assessment program that monitors and improves the company’s risk posture and that of vendors.

4. Dynamically assess the latest risks:

Grade vendors’ cybersecurity postures, identify vulnerabilities, forecast the likelihood of attack patterns such as ransomware impacting them, and calculate the potential financial impact of certain third-party breaches. Then, use these insights to prioritize risks and create a risk response plan.

5. Elevate the ecosystem:

Provide data-backed intelligence on risks to vendors, suppliers, and partners so they can mitigate risks proactively. Build stronger relationships by helping vendors avoid harm to their businesses. Warning a vendor that it’s vulnerable to a ransomware attack can help them make proactive improvements to avoid it, saving them from operational paralysis, customer harm, ransoms, lawsuits, and fines.

6. Work with the best:

Use the data and insights from a risk intelligence provider to rate potential vendors, select the more security-forward partners, and weed out low performers.

Build Trust and Cooperation with Vendors to Improve Engagement

Accurate, reliable risk data is the foundation of effective third-party risk management. It empowers companies to engage their vendors with confidence, enables proactive risk mitigation, and fosters stronger partnerships built on trust and transparency. By leveraging solutions like Black Kite Bridge™, organizations can share precise, actionable intelligence that encourages vendors to take immediate, targeted actions—leading to faster risk reduction and a more secure ecosystem for everyone involved. In fact, early users of Black Kite Bridge™ have experienced more than 200% increase in vendor responses, resulting in considerable reduction in third-party risk.

Looking for step-by-step guidance to elevate your vendor collaboration efforts? Get a before-and-after look at how to transform third-party outreach and collaboration in our interactive ebook Chaos to Collaboration: Transforming Third-Party Risk Response for Zero-Day Events (no download required).