Vendor-Provided Resources

Understanding the risk, whether for a new or existing third-party product or service, often starts with a questionnaire. Creating a questionnaire in and of itself can be quite a large task. A questionnaire shouldn’t be confused with a risk assessment as they’re two distinct items. Download the guide to learn our recommended steps for how to create a vendor risk questionnaire. 

Download the eBook to learn:

• Steps to creating your vendor questionnaire

• Tailoring questionnaires to the type of vendor

• Risk categories to consider

• How vendor questionnaires lead to proper oversight

Financial, operational, and reputational risk are all fundamental negative exposure pain points you must be aware of and protect against. The number of data breaches reported lately is a reminder that the importance of third-party oversight has never been greater. In this infographic, learn the 9 steps to developing an effective vendor management program by placing emphasis on highlighting and mitigating risk. 

Download this infographic to learn:

• 9 steps to developing an effective vendor risk management program

• The importance of analyzing vendor due diligence documents

• How your contract management program can impact your ability to truly manage a third party

It’s not uncommon for vendor risk assessment terms to get mixed up or seem like the same thing. However, while all are important, there are differences to be aware of between questionnaires, risk assessments, due diligence, and continuous monitoring. These four activities will tell you the type and amount of risk associated with the vendor, the effectiveness of the vendor’s control environment, and whether the risk is changing. 

Download the infographic to learn:

• The differences between inherent risk assessments, vendor risk questionnaires, due diligence, and vendor risk assessments

• The what, why, and when of each

• Ongoing activities such as continuous monitoring, risk re-assessments, and due diligence reviews

• Tips to remember

When managing vendor risk, there's often confusion surrounding critical and high risk. Many mistakenly consider these terms synonymous, but they're not.

There's an important difference between these terms and how they should be applied. This infographic outlines how to separate criticality from various risk ratings.

Download the infographic to learn:

• Criticality vs risk ratings

• What a risk rating is

• How to manage critical and high-risk vendors

Check out Venminder's slide deck on "Engaging, Educating, and Enabling Your Vendor Owners for Optimal Third- Party Risk Management Success".

Successful vendor risk management requires more than a policy, software and a framework. It requires the teamwork of stakeholders across the organization, and vendor managers play a crucial role. Still, vendor risk management teams report that getting the vendor managers’ full engagement and participation is a constant struggle. Why is this predicament so common? How can resistance from the line of business be addressed? 

To help vendor risk management teams build and maintain effective and mutually beneficial relationships with their line of business vendor managers, it’s important to understand the “3 E’s” - Engagement, Education and Enablement. Establishing or improving these relationships is often a necessary first step in effectively executing vendor risk management across the organization.

Create a TPRM program that addresses your organization’s highest security risks and aligns with strategic objectives

The number of businesses in the world has increased drastically in recent years, and the need for third-party suppliers has grown with it. With additional external dependencies in the form of third parties and vendors comes a widened risk landscape. Left unmonitored, threats and security incidents can become pervasive and cripple your business. 

In this infographic, you’ll learn: 

• How many surveyed companies have expanded their third-party network

• The percent of businesses that have experienced significant disruptions caused by third parties

• The amount of organizations that have given more access to external partners

Working with third parties is essential to the success of almost every organization. But it also introduces numerous security risks and challenges. In the last year alone, 84% of security professionals experienced at least one significant disruption directly attributed to a third party. Organizations across all industries are quickly — and painfully — seeing gaps in their current security programs. We spoke with leading security experts across various operational functions, from CISOs to cyber risk managers to procurement leads, about their approach to working with third parties. 

Learn how to:

• Approach a TPRM program as an InfoSec professional

• Get buy-in from key stakeholders

• Leverage existing company resources and tools

• Implement a TPRM program across the organization

Venminder created this AI primer to help third-party risk managers gain a fundamental understanding of artificial intelligence to better understand some of the AI products, services, and risks that must be considered in their third-party risk management (TPRM) practices.

In a recent Aravo benchmarking survey, approximately 90% of respondents reported that their organization had experienced at least one incident related to third parties that either did or could have led to business disruption or reputational damage. This is up from 59% in 2020, and 75% in 2019. As the third-party risk management (TPRM) discipline evolves, regulators, investors, and other stakeholders want to know that organizations are managing risks and are resilient in the face of change. Organizations need the ability to quickly detect and respond to changes in the risk profiles of their third parties.

As a risk manager, you are likely familiar with the concept of certificates of insurance. But have you ever thought of leveraging machine learning to analyze those certificates? With the right technology, you can now throw away your spreadsheets and step into the future. Take a look at how Evident uses machine learning to analyze certificates of insurance.