1 year ago

Fourth-party risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating the cybersecurity risks posed by the vendors of your third-party vendors (your vendor’s vendors). This post outlines a framework for implementing a fourth-party risk management program to protect your data from this overlooked attack surface region.

Data breach protection initiatives are incomplete unless third-party and fourth-party risks are addressed in Vendor Risk Management programs.

In third-party risk management programs (also referred to as Vendor Risk Management programs), vendors are tiered so that critical vendors - those that process a higher degree of sensitive data, are prioritized in risk mitigation efforts.

With all of your critical fourth-party vendors grouped separately and new fourth-party vendor discovery embedded in your due diligence process, the groundwork for a fourth-party risk management program has been laid.