Better Together: The Benefits of Combining MXDR and TPRM

Security operations teams face escalating demands to promptly detect and respond to third-party cyber threats, largely due to the increasing number of data breaches occurring within an organization’s supply chain. An effective program to manage this type of cyber risk is essential for safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining business continuity. 

Why TPRM is a Rising Priority 

Third-party vendors are integral to business operations, but they also introduce significant cyber risks. These risks can arise from inadequate security practices, insufficient regulatory compliance, and limited visibility into misconfigurations and vulnerabilities that might be present.  

Data breaches caused by third-party connections are on the rise. 15% of all breaches in the past year were caused by third party connections, a 68% increase from the previous year. Last year, 95% of organizations reported being negatively impacted in some way by a data breach in their supply chain. An effective TPRM should be able to identify, assess, and manage these risks, ensuring that third-party relationships do not become a liability. 

Common Risks and Pitfalls Associated with Third-Party Vendors

• Inadequate Security Practices: Vendors may not adhere to the same security standards as your organization, leading to vulnerabilities. 
• Regulatory Non-Compliance: Failure to meet industry regulations can result in legal penalties. 
• Ineffective Communication: Poor coordination with vendors can delay risk remediation efforts. 
• Limited Visibility: A lack of insight into vendor ecosystems can hinder risk identification and management. 

Key Components of a Strong TPRM Program 

Based on BlueVoyant’s experience, we find that by focusing on several key components, organizations can safeguard their operations and maintain strong security postures. Here are the key elements that contribute to an effective TPRM program: 

• Measurable Risk Remediation: Implement processes to identify, prioritize, and remediate risks — promptly and effectively. 
• Vendor Assessment and Questionnaire Management: Use detailed assessments and questionnaires to evaluate vendors' security practices and compliance.
• Continuous Monitoring and Reporting: Regularly monitor vendor ecosystems and report on their risk posture to maintain visibility and accountability. 
• Reducing Risk Across All Steps of the Vendor Lifecycle: From onboarding to reassessment, ensure that risk management practices are applied consistently throughout the vendor lifecycle. 

Holistic Security: Integrating TPRM with MXDR 

Adopting a holistic security approach is essential for effective threat management. By integrating Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) with Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR), organizations can significantly enhance their threat detection and response capabilities. This collaboration improves visibility into potential threats and enables more effective risk remediation. 

Benefits of Program Integration for Overall Security

• Enhanced Threat Detection – Continuous, year-round monitoring within your environment and that of third-part ecosystems ensures early identification of potential threats. 
• Improved Response Capabilities – Remote threat containment and mitigation of your environment, and unmatched time to remediation of zero-day and emerging vulnerabilities in your vendor ecosystem. 
• Seamless Collaboration – indicator enrichment and optimization of your environment and third-party ecosystem threat intelligence to reduce false positives and improve vendor communication and collaboration. 

Implementing Effective TPRM and MXDR 

To fully realize the benefits of TPRM and MXDR integration, organizations should focus on the following strategies: 

• Establish clear communication channels: while it can be implemented in a variety of ways, something as simple as clear communications channels between your SOC operations team and your TPRM team is important to ensure awareness and prioritization of risks and issues. 
• Integrate vendor monitoring with SOC tools: leverage shared tools and platforms as much as possible to monitor both internal security and third-party activities. Continuous monitoring solutions can ensure that you are identifying risks in your supply chain that can be passed along to the SOC. 
• Develop joint incident response plans: in the case of mitigating a zero day or other critical vulnerability, or for any other incident that may occur that can affect both your supply chain and your internal network, SOC and TPRM teams should be aligned on how response plans should be executed. 
• Collaborative intelligence sharing: Create effective channels for SOC and TPRM teams to flag issues impacting organizational and vendor risk postures, enhancing overall security intelligence. 

BlueVoyant’s Cyber Defense Platform facilitates a seamless integration of your internal network and third-party ecosystems utilizing our MXDR and Supply Chain Defense solutions. Supply Chain Defense features a fully managed TPRM solution that is designed to rapidly identify and resolve critical cybersecurity issues within both your third-party ecosystem. Whether you’re an existing BlueVoyant customer or new to our platform, it takes just a few steps to activate Supply Chain Defense and start proactively reducing your cyber risk.

Watch our video below to learn more.