Aparna Sundararajan on Third Party Risk

CISOs in Australia and New Zealand are increasing their focus on third-party risks.

And although the pandemic has shone a new light on the vulnerabilities posed by external suppliers, this new focus is partly uncovering pre-existing threats.

Amongst other challenges, pre-existing supply chain threats include:

• data sovereignty and jurisdictional issues associated with offshore partners
• operational difficulties arising from immature cybersecurity infrastructure
• compliance frictions that result from inconsistent awareness programs and certification
• financial fragility due to material impacts on cash flow and lines of credit.

ADAPT data from November 2020 shows that 78% of the region’s cybersecurity executives are…