How to Prioritize Vulnerabilities in Your Supply Chain: A Proven Approach to Cut Through the Noise

Written by: Ferhat Dikbiyik, Chief Research & Intelligence Officer

Drowning in vulnerability alerts? You’re not alone. Cybersecurity professionals dealing with Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) are facing an overwhelming flood of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), making it nearly impossible to address every single threat. Traditional methods of vulnerability management, often relying solely on severity scores, simply aren’t cutting it in today’s complex supply chain environment. How do you decide which vulnerabilities to tackle first when you have thousands clamoring for attention?

Fortunately, there’s a better way.

In this video, I walk through the findings of our 2025 Supply Chain Vulnerability Report, featuring original research by the Black Kite Research & Intelligence Team (BRITE), breaking down the key challenges of vulnerability prioritization and introducing a powerful three-dimensional approach that helps TPRM professionals effectively prioritize vulnerabilities in their supply chain. This method allows you to focus on what truly matters and dramatically reduce risk.

Three Dimensions for Prioritizing CVEs in TPRM:

1. Severity

This is the traditional approach, using metrics like CVSS to assess the potential impact of a vulnerability. While important, the report emphasizes that severity alone is insufficient.

2. Exploitability

This dimension considers the likelihood of a vulnerability being actively exploited by threat actors. Factors like the availability of exploit code and threat actor trends come into play.

3. Exposure

This crucial element addresses how many of your vendors or third parties are susceptible to a specific vulnerability. A high-severity, easily exploitable vulnerability affecting a large number of your vendors poses a significantly greater risk.

Result: Hear the Signal in the Noise

By combining these three dimensions, security teams can move beyond simply reacting to the loudest alerts and develop a truly strategic approach to vulnerability management. The video provides clear explanations and visual aids to help you grasp these concepts and begin implementing them in your own organization.

Dive deeper and gain a comprehensive understanding of supply chain vulnerability management. Read the full 2025 Supply Chain Vulnerability Report for detailed analysis, actionable recommendations, and best practices.

And be sure to watch Part 2 of my video walkthrough of the report to discover how Black Kite solves the problem of managing vulnerability risks in the supply chain with FocusTags™ vulnerability intelligence.