CyberGRX vs UpGuard

As outsourcing significant business functions is now common practice for most organizations, major third-party data breaches are rapidly taking over news headlines.

Ponemon Institute and IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report found the average cost of a breach has increased from $370,000 to $4.35 million, with third-party involvement listed as one of the main reasons. An eSentire survey from the same year highlights that 44% of firms surveyed have experienced a significant data breach caused by a third-party vendor.

With Gartner reporting 60% of organizations as having 1000+ third-party relationships, effectively managing the cybersecurity risks they create and practicing vendor due diligence proves increasingly difficult.

Information security teams often also rely on manual risk reporting methods which are time and labor-intensive. Many organizations are now turning to automated third-party risk management (TPRM) solutions that automate data breach detection capabilities, provide real-time insights, and streamline remediation workflows.

We assess two TPRM solutions, CyberGRX and UpGuard, to help you make an informed decision before investing in the right solution for your needs.

CyberGRX Overview

CyberGRX was founded in 2015 and is based in Denver, Colorado in the United States. CyberGRX provides enterprises and their third parties improve their approach to third-party cyber risk management.

It does this by collecting questionnaire data and cyber risk assessments in a structured format and then sharing them on their information exchange platform to reduce the operational overhead of due diligence programs.

CyberGRX UI. Source: cybergrx.com

Minimizing the amount of time and effort in learning to use a new solution is a critical aspect of delivering on any value proposition.

CyberGRX and UpGuard offer their services via SaaS and are accessible from web-based platforms that can help users monitor and manage vendor due diligence and cyber risks.

CyberGRX: Risks detailed on point-in-time vendor assessment coupled with continuous monitoring of inherent risk, threat intelligence, and risk scoring. The exchange model forces more frequent point in time assessments, as many as 2-3 times each year.

UpGuard: High-level summation of risk with the ability to drill down into precise technical details. Each risk is prioritized based on extensive research conducted by the in-house security team, and where possible remediation and protection suggestions are provided.

CyberGRX and UpGuard help organizations stay informed about their vendors’ information security risks as part of third-party risk management (TPRM) and vendor due diligence programs.

CyberGRX: Provides a security questionnaire and vendor due diligence information exchange to help reduce the operational overhead of traditionally manual and point in time assessments.

UpGuard: Offers real-time visibility into any third-party vendor’s risk posture & security rating along with total automation for managing vendor due diligence and remediation programs.

Keeping informed on product updates and the latest cyber security developments is paramount, with new vulnerabilities and cyber threats emerging daily.

Customers need up-to-date resources and relevant insights to stay ahead of the curve and protect their organizations from emerging cyber risks.

The frequency of publication and presence of community engagement is a key indicator of a company’s mission, focus, and investment in its users.

CyberGRX and UpGuard offer comprehensive online resources to educate and inform customers.

CyberGRX: CyberGRX offers extensive community support sharing best platform and program practices via regularly updated podcasts, webinars, whitepapers, and strategic partnerships.

UpGuard: UpGuard Summit brings together a community of security leaders from leading companies, explores the future of security, and helps businesses stay secure.

The UpGuard cybersecurity and risk management blog is updated four times a week and the breach research blog has uncovered and secured some of the largest data breaches.

UpGuard’s free weekly Breach Newsletter informs 20,000+ subscribers of the latest global data breaches.

Technology is always changing. New vulnerabilities are added to CVE on a daily basis, and attackers are constantly finding new zero-day exploits.

The speed at which a security platform can incorporate changes determines how well it can respond to new threats and customer requests.

Additionally, they should continue to update, adjust, and improve their threat detection methodology to reflect changes to the threat landscape.

CyberGRX: CyberGRX makes product releases throughout the year as needed and documents release notes monthly to help users understand and make use of beneficial changes.

UpGuard: UpGuard has adopted DevOps principles internally to develop, test, and release software continuously, ensuring fast, consistent, and safe releases.

UpGuard has a regular release rate every two weeks, with all features, changes, and improvements listed under UpGuard Release Notes.

Cyber risk platforms can be expensive and the common use of opaque pricing policies often takes power away from the purchaser. With most services offering tiered licensing options and add-ons, finding a solution that fits your needs and budget can prove more difficult without transparent pricing.

CyberGRX: CyberGRX lists typical engagements as starting at around $120,000 USD. This includes validated assessments data, and unlimited access to the CyberGRX Exchange.

UpGuard: UpGuard has a fully transparent and publicly accessible pricing model which you can view here. If you have any questions, please email sales@upguard.com.

Accessing the information in a cyber risk product outside of its graphical interface is important for integrated business strategies and consolidating data to a preferred system.

CyberGRX and UpGuard offer APIs.

CyberGRX: CyberGRX offers a fully functional bidirectional API.

UpGuard: Offers a standard API to pull data from UpGuard’s platform into other enterprise applications.

APIs are useful for technical staff, but not all information security teams have access to developers. In this situation, standard third-party integrations are an essential part of decision-making.

CyberGRX and UpGuard offer integrations into other platforms.

CyberGRX: Integrates with multiple GRC platforms, visualization tools, ticketing systems, and SOC tools.

UpGuard:Integrates with Zapier to enable connections to 3,000+ apps; GRC platforms, ticketing systems like JIRA; VRM solutions like ServiceNow, and more.

CyberGRX: Major customers include Medibank Private, Mass Mutual, QBE, Solix, and McAfee.

UpGuard: Major customers across highly regulated sectors include Accenture, New York Stock Exchange, Tech Mahindra, and Morningstar.

CyberGRX: Provides a quantification of information security posture based on a shared library of point-in-time risk assessments updated on a rotating basis.

UpGuard: Security rating scale of 0-950, ranked as A: 801-950, B: 601-800, C: 401-600, D: 201-400, F: 0-200. You can request your free security rating by clicking here.