Outsourcing, digitization, and globalization have created new products and services, increased specialization, lowered costs, and improved access for customers and organizations alike.
The downside is they've introduced cyber risk. Particularly the risk of data breaches and data leaks. In fact, a recent study by the Ponemon Institute and IBM put the average cost of a data breach at $3.92 million.
Today, cybersecurity and vendor risk management are a top priority not only for CISOs but senior management as a whole including Board members.
The connected global economy has introduced new, sophisticated cyber threats and resiliency risks that many organizations are only now beginning to address.
These trends have forced governments to enact laws and regulations that require the establishment of third-party cyber risk management programs designed to better identify, assess, mitigate, and oversee risks created by third-party vendors, fourth-parties, and even customers.
This is business as usual for financial services, healthcare, energy, military, and government organizations. However, these are no longer the only industries impacted.
The introduction of general data protection laws with extraterritorial application has meant that even loosely regulated entities are now looking to improve their nascent vendor risk management processes.
In addition, the introduction of mandatory data breach notification requirements means the reputational impact of inadequate vendor and cybersecurity risk management practices are felt far more.
The best security teams we know of have developed the expertise required to translate technical details like security postures, cybersecurity risk assessments, vendor questionnaires, and information security policies into terms their most important non-technical stakeholders can understand, e.g. Board members and regulators.
Overall these trends have led third-party risk management and security teams to invest in third-party risk management tools. The problem is it's hard to decide on which ones to assess, let alone what criteria to assess them against.
That's why we wrote this post to provide you with a clear comparison between Whistic and UpGuard, so you can make an informed decision and choose the tool that is right for you.
Whistic Overview
Whistic is based in Salt Lake City, Utah and aims to help companies hold each other accountable for protecting their shared data.
Customers can use Whistic's workflows to conduct security reviews and respond to security reviews in one platform.
Their platform has tools to help you onboard, assess, and track vendors, by allowing you to compare third-parties against a set of predefined criteria based on vendor questionnaires, documentation, and metadata.
Vendors can assess themselves against one of the top vendor questionnaires and publish it to their profile, along with supporting documentation including audits and certifications.
