Time: 2024-06-22
By Craig Davies, Chief Information Security Officer, Gathid.
The security of any organization's data and systems can often be compromised by seemingly benign entities - third-party contractors, vendors, and outsourced service partners. While these external entities require access to sensitive systems and data to fulfill their roles, improper management of these access rights often leads to data breaches and other security incidents.
A February 2024 SecurityScorecard study highlighted the ongoing risks third parties pose in organizational security. It found that 98% of companies are connected to at least one third party that has suffered a data breach, and third-party attack vectors are responsible for 29% of all reported breaches. This highlights the need for efficient and effective third-party risk management strategies to safeguard organizational assets.
Third-party access auditing is a must for organizations using external vendors and contractors due to the security, compliance, and operational implications involved. It helps safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of an organization's data and systems while serving multiple essential functions, including:
Enhanced Security Posture: Auditing ensures that only authorized third-party entities can access sensitive systems. This controlled access helps prevent security incidents by monitoring activities for abnormal behavior.
Regulatory Compliance: Compliance standards across regulated industries mandate control over data access. Regular third-party access audits ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIP, and SOX, documenting access specifics and preventing potential legal and financial repercussions.
Operational Integrity: By enforcing access controls that align with the third party's operational role, organizations can avoid unauthorized changes or disruptions that might affect business continuity. This approach supports the operational integrity of critical systems.
Financial Stability: Effective third-party access auditing helps reduce the risk of security breaches and privacy incidents that could result in significant financial losses due to remediation costs, legal fees, and potential fines. By proactively managing and auditing third-party access, organizations not only protect their data but also shield their financial health from the impacts of data breaches.
Given the potential risks associated with third-party access, organizations must proactively manage and audit these permissions. Here are five key steps to effectively audit third-party access:
1. Identify and catalog third-party accounts, detailing their access levels and the data or systems they can interact with.
2. Verify and validate access necessity, ensuring access is based on the principle of least privilege.
3. Understand third-party employee life cycle management, particularly how they handle access rights.
4. Establish a regular audit trail to detect any unauthorized or abnormal access patterns.
5. Integrate third-party access into the overall security policy to ensure consistent security measures for internal and external access.
Organizations should also watch out for red flags that might indicate misuse or mismanagement of third-party access rights, such as generic account usage, anomalous access patterns, and lack of offboarding processes.
In conclusion, understanding and managing third-party access is not just a security measure - it is a business imperative. By implementing robust auditing practices, organizations can greatly mitigate the risk posed by third-party access and protect sensitive data, preserve IT environment integrity, and maintain the trust of customers and stakeholders.
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