Global Airline

To the airline’s cybersecurity team, third-party risk management (TPRM) isn’t just a compliance checkbox – it’s a core function for securing critical operations in an industry where even a minor disruption can have massive ripple effects.

"As an airline, security isn't just about protecting our own systems – it extends to the entire supply chain. Every vendor we work with plays a role in keeping our operations safe, from aircraft maintenance to digital services." — Cyber Consultancy Team Lead

The Challenge

With over 4,300 (and growing) vendors, the TPRM team of seven cybersecurity consultants faced an overwhelming task. Vendor risk assessments required weeks of manual effort, leaving the team constantly stretched thin.

“We’d spend hours chasing vendors, manually checking compliance, and trying to piece together a clear risk picture across fragmented tools.” said the cybersecurity consultant team lead. 

Their key challenges included:

• Weeks-long assessment cycles, with lengthy email chains and manual tracking slowing down decision-making.
• Siloed security data, making it difficult to form a single, trusted source of truth on vendor risks.
• Limited visibility into vendor security posture, leading to uncertainty when reporting risks to leadership.
• No scalable process for vendor compliance, creating inconsistent security assessments across different business units.

"We'd be asked about breaches that might be public in the media, for example, followed by, 'How are we keeping track of all our vendor risk levels?' We didn't always have a clear answer," added one of the cybersecurity consultants.

Without a scalable, structured approach to third-party risk management, the airline was exposed to vendors who may have undetected vulnerabilities, compliance gaps, and potential disruptions that could impact critical operations, regulatory standing, and customer trust.

The Solution

Determined to fix the problem, the airline implemented UpGuard Vendor Risk, transforming its third-party risk management approach. With UpGuard, the airline no longer needed to track assessments in spreadsheets or rely on multiple disconnected tools. Everything is managed in one platform, providing real-time oversight, insight and foresight on their third-party risk posture.

Key improvements included:

• Automated risk assessments – Assessment workflows are now fully digitised and tracked in real time.
• Centralised risk data – The team uses a single dashboard to monitor vendors across the business.
• Tool consolidation – The airline replaced 2 internal and 3 external tools (including SecurityScorecard) with UpGuard.
• Procurement integration – Risk scores are now built into the RFP process, enabling quicker, more secure decisions.
• Managed Risk Assessments – Outsourcing the Cyber Risk Assessments to UpGuard gave us the ability to scale and take the pressure off the internal team.  

The team can now evaluate and continuously monitor the baseline of thousands of vendors – without adding headcount.

“It used to be a manual process with Excel spreadsheets sent over email, and then we'd have to chase vendors for responses. Now, everything is centralized, and we can actually track progress in real-time.”
— Cyber Security Consultant

The Results

The impact was immediate. By automating workflows and centralizing vendor data, the airline transformed the way it manages third-party risk:

• Full vendor visibility – With 4,300+ vendors tiered, categorised, and monitored continuously, the team closed visibility gaps across its ecosystem
• More assessments completed – The airline now completes more than twice the vendor risk assessments annually compared to before UpGuard
• Streamlined procurement – Risk reviews that once took weeks now take 2-3 days, accelerating vendor onboarding and business time to value
• Time savings – Assessments that previously took 12–18 hours now take around 3 - 6 hours
• Improved reporting – Real-time dashboards provide leadership with an always-up-to-date view of vendor risk

Beyond internal efficiencies, the airline saw a notable shift in vendor engagement – many vendors began proactively improving their security posture after reviewing their UpGuard risk profiles. By gaining direct insight into their risk ratings, several vendors took action to remediate issues without the cybersecurity team having to chase them – a level of initiative the airline had never seen before.

“We've helped vendors even when there wasn't an issue we needed to solve. We showed them their profile and they found it quite interesting. Some vendors improved their security posture significantly after we've had those discussions.”
— Cyber Security Consultant

By reducing manual workloads, improving visibility, and fostering vendor-driven security improvements, the airline has transformed third-party risk management into a proactive, scalable, and high-impact program.

For the cybersecurity consultant team, UpGuard wasn’t just a tool, it was a catalyst for change. What was once a compliance burden is now a strategic advantage, giving the airline the ability to manage risk with confidence and efficiency across its entire vendor ecosystem.