Understanding Vendor Management Strategies

Globalization has paved way for expansion of the business enterprises across boundaries. In the process, it has also paved way for opening up of various opportunities for small and medium enterprises, groups or individuals to act as vendors for the large corporate houses. Further, technological growth has given the dynamic business environment networking systems to keep them connected and share business related critical data and information across the network. However, all this e-information needs to be protected from cyber attack.

To guard such vital business information organizations require management solutions, the effectiveness of which lies in the strength of the firewall and information security programs. Designing and developing such strong threat management systems requires a proper understanding of origin of threats and its modus operandi. Selection of vendors and using an effective vendor management system will help organizations alleviate threats and keep a tab of all the links to the network.

Vendors can be defined as a group of workers, independent professionals, consultants or experts, either freelancing or on temporary contract, outsourced by an organization. Gartner’s research on vendor management goes a long way in aiding organizations with the right metrics and relationships required in selecting the vendors best fit the organization.  An effective vendor management system thus enables organizations to control overhead costs, drive service excellence throughout the product life cycle.

For every organization, the important aspect of managing vendors is the ability to share information and priorities with them. However, with threats looming large over the World Wide Web and the risks to corporate networks, organizations need to effectively manage risk and compliance simultaneously while being cost efficient. Leading service providers have worked out effective vendor management processes for these organizations. Such process will enable the global organizations to understand the risks of their business relationships with third-party vendors regarding data sharing or outsourcing.

By integrating effective risk management solutions involving people, policies, process and technology and the structured vendor management approach will help organization establish a continuous communication and alleviate threats while achieving quality service.   The risk management solutions available as an on-demand service from the service providers would provide client organizations the necessary support for managing vendors, cyber-security, operations, and IT compliance.

Vendor management solutions offered by the leading service providers, to protect the global organizations, from various unknown threats,   helps client organization to automatically monitor and manage sensitive data and technical controls. It enables managers to manage the risks involved, assesses vendor risk against best practice standards, derive IT compliance , vendor compliance and risks ratings. By adopting such effective approaches to reduce business risks, organizations can gain a competitive advantage.

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Compliance management solution

HIPAA/HITECH 

Plug Security Breaches with IT Security & Compliance Management Solution

Thanks to the advancements in technology, enterprises today are able to collaborate, communicate, and share information online. Technology has opened up new business avenues and a pool of opportunities for enterprises to explore, expand their businesses, and enhance their profitability. Though technology has made things easier, smoother, and faster for enterprises, it has exposed businesses and organizations to a variety of new and emerging information security risks, like security breaches, data leaks, and cyber-attacks. As a result, enterprises face huge risks and liabilities, which cost them millions of dollars per breach. The following are some of the data breach statistics that clearly point out the need to develop a threat management environment.

* In the first quarter of 2012, there have so far been 93 incidents, exposing 2,140,987 records. (Source: Identity Theft Resource Center)

* In 2011, 37 percent of data breach cases involved malicious attacks and averaged $222 per record. Negligence accounted for 39 percent of reported breaches. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)

* Total number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches in the U.S. is 544,817,607 in 3,002 data breaches since January 2005. (A Chronology of Data Breaches, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse)

* The average total cost per company that reported a breach in 2011 was $5.5 million. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)

* In the United States, data breach incidents cost companies $194 per compromised record in 2011. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)

Hence, what enterprises need is to invest in enterprise compliance management software that allows their users to access applications and information where and when it is required, without exposing the organization to security threats, data loss and compliance risks.This automated and on-demand integrated IT security and compliance management solution provides end-to-end integration of security monitoring with IT Governance risk management and compliance (IT GRC) using a cloud based delivery model. The following are some of the advantages of deploying IT security and compliance management solution.

* Automates all Security, Compliance, Audit, and Risk management needs

* Ensures faster regulatory compliance

* Combats cyber-security threats with proactive assessment, forensics, compliance and security

* Offers Continuous security and compliance

* Reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) dramatically through automation and governance

* Provides Complete Risk Management

IT compliance solution thus provides a safe and secure environment for enterprises to carry out business activities effectively.

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Vendor management

Attain Regulatory Compliance with Enterprise Compliance Management Software

Today enterprises, both big and small, need to conform to various regulations in order to make their business environment safe and secure. Let's look at some important regulations, the need for compliance with these regulations, and the means of achieving compliance.

Today enterprises, both big and small, need to conform to various regulations in order to make their business environment safe and secure. Let's look at some important regulations, the need for compliance with these regulations, and the means of achieving compliance.

HIPAA Compliance 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)was enacted at a time when the healthcare system was rampant with fraud and abuse. When it started getting out of control, the federal government had to step in not only to protect patient information but also to defend interests of the workers, when they change or lose their jobs. HIPAA compliance is necessary for any person or institution that directly or indirectly deals with patient health information (PHI).

ISO 27002 Compliance 

With most of the transactions happening online, there is a huge risk of data being compromised. If the enterprise fails to implement effective security measures, it leads to data breaches and data thefts.One such incident is enough for the enterprise to lose its reputation and goodwill. ISO 27002 compliance helps the enterprises in proving that information security practices are stringently followed and that their information is secure in accordance with an internationally recognized standard. 

GLBA Compliance 

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) was enacted to "enhance competition in the financial services industry by providing a prudential framework for the affiliation of banks, securities firms, and other financial service providers, and for other purposes."Besides, it also protects the consumers' nonpublic information or personally identifiable information. GLBA compliance is necessary as it safeguards information from foreseeable threats in security and data integrity. 

PCI Compliance 

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), an information security standard for organizations that handle cardholder information,was enacted to reduce credit card fraud via its exposure. PCI DSS compliance is necessary since one slip or compromise could result in huge financial and brand-image losses .

Today' business environment is highly volatile and therefore enterprises have no other go but to conform to these regulations. This can be easily done with the help of enterprise compliance management software that includes all of the security and IT-GRC functions required to achieve compliance. It simplifies and reduces the time required for regulatory compliance and certification processes, while providing complete end-to-end automation of all security, compliance, audit, and IT risk management needs.

Hence, enterprises must invest in effective compliance management solution, as it not only helps them to meet appropriate IT compliance requirements but also to focus on their core business.

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Vendor management 
Threat management solutions

Comprehensive Threat Management Solutions for Complete Protection

With technology advances, cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and insidious. An effective and up-to-date threat management solution that simplifies compliance with regulatory requirements is essential to continually monitor and expose new gaps in your information security infrastructure. Security is usually seen as a critical part of the IT infrastructure to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability. Enterprises have been trying to constantly utilize advance security technologies to solve their security problems. With increasing threats clearly looming over their business, organizations need a simple and an integrated security solution.

As the threat becomes more complex, the concept of implementing multiple layers of defence becomes increasingly important. Threat Management, until recently was time-consuming, costly and gap-ridden, but an effective threat management solution gives you additional protection layers to strengthen your existing IT infrastructure against any malevolent attacks. IT security experts speak of the importance of having a multi-tiered network security plan in place for businesses-one with layers upon layers of security so that virtual immunity to cyber-crime is as close to certainty as possible. Most companies address the threats endangering their IT infrastructures with integrated or unified threat management solutions, instead of complex products that make administration daunting and expensive. Companies that are involved in securing IT infrastructure from threats embrace the principal of defence in depth.

Effective threat management is necessary for organizations to defend themselves against today's ever-present and pervasive cyber-threats. As threat management can be a challenge for many organizations, it is important to choose a threat management solution that is able to handle the demands of real-time applications. While there are point solutions to address security monitoring and IT-GRC issues separately, it is prudent to have a solution that enables end-to-end integration of advanced network monitoring and governance, risk and compliance and a unified and integrated solution to continuously monitor and assess your security posture and the level of compliance as required by federal laws.

Investing in a solution helps organizations solve multiple data-centric information security challenges, which includes advanced persistent threat detection, data leakage, insider threats, malware analysis, continuous controls verification, and network e-discovery of assets. The solution you choose must be holistic for advanced information security and Compliance providing easy monitoring and end-to-end automation of all enterprise security, compliance, audit, and IT risk management needs.

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Compliance management

HIPAA compliance 

Plug Security Breaches with IT Security & Compliance Management Solution

Thanks to the advancements in technology, enterprises today are able to collaborate, communicate, and share information online. Technology has opened up new business avenues and a pool of opportunities for enterprises to explore, expand their businesses, and enhance their profitability. Though technology has made things easier, smoother, and faster for enterprises, it has exposed businesses and organizations to a variety of new and emerging information security risks, like security breaches, data leaks, and cyber-attacks. As a result, enterprises face huge risks and liabilities, which cost them millions of dollars per breach. The following are some of the data breach statistics that clearly point out the need to develop a threat management environment.

• In the first quarter of 2012, there have so far been 93 incidents, exposing 2,140,987 records. (Source: Identity Theft Resource Center)
• In 2011, 37 percent of data breach cases involved malicious attacks and averaged $222 per record. Negligence accounted for 39 percent of reported breaches. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)
• Total number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches in the U.S. is 544,817,607 in 3,002 data breaches since January 2005. (A Chronology of Data Breaches, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse)
• The average total cost per company that reported a breach in 2011 was $5.5 million. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)
• In the United States, data breach incidents cost companies $194 per compromised record in 2011. (2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)

Hence, what enterprises need is to invest in enterprise compliance management software that allows their users to access applications and information where and when it is required, without exposing the organization to security threats, data loss and compliance risks.This automated and on-demand integrated IT security and compliance management solution provides end-to-end integration of security monitoring with IT Governance risk management and compliance (IT GRC) using a cloud based delivery model. The following are some of the advantages of deploying IT security and compliance management solution.

• Automates all Security, Compliance, Audit, and Risk management needs
• Ensures faster regulatory compliance
• Combats cyber-security threats with proactive assessment, forensics, compliance and security
• Offers Continuous security and compliance
• Reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) dramatically through automation and governance
• Provides Complete Risk Management

IT compliance solution thus provides a safe and secure environment for enterprises to carry out business activities effectively.

Other Links

HIPAA compliance

Compliance management