Amid a rise in regulatory pressure for cybersecurity leaders in Europe, with DORA and NIS2 as the most recent examples, cyber risk analytics are emerging as an instrumental tool in ensuring compliance. And there’s evidence that proves it.
Recently, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) conducted a comprehensive survey across Europe, encompassing 1,081 organizations spanning all 27 Member States. The survey delved into the prevailing practices for mitigating ICT/OT supply chain cybersecurity risks. What emerged from this study was a resounding acknowledgement of the value of security risk ratings. An astounding 43% of the surveyed organizations turn to security rating services as a robust mechanism for assessing and managing hidden risks across the supply chain.
Security ratings offer visibility, benchmarking, continuous monitoring, and data-driven decision-making to effectively mitigate risks. They serve as an important tool for organizations seeking to ensure compliance with the latest cybersecurity regulations while bolstering their cybersecurity resilience.
More Than Metrics: Visibility Meets Compliance
We are living in a time where visibility is paramount. Your attack surface and digital footprint are expanding at an unprecedented pace, with an intricate web of regulations like DORA, NIS2, and PS21/3 dictating stringent measures to ensure compliance and fortify defense.
Independent cybersecurity benchmarking results are quickly becoming one of the primary tools to achieve complete visibility of the risks posed to the organization. They stem from an objective analysis of cybersecurity performance, utilizing quantitative data and non-intrusive methods to continuously collect data, enabling the creation of reliable, comparable insights and metrics. Security leaders leverage this method to continuously assess their organization's cybersecurity posture, facilitating ongoing comparisons with peers and industry standards—including regulatory requirements.
But security ratings aren't just about numbers; they're about bridging the gap between compliance and visibility. As a leader, you need solutions that are versatile, robust, and, most importantly, actionable. Data provides you with the insights you need for the business outcomes you want.
When Bitsight pioneered the security ratings industry in 2011, the overarching mission was to build a global standard for cyber risk governance. A universal metric to interpret and communicate cyber risk. Today, that standard has been independently verified to have the strongest correlation to critical outcomes, including cybersecurity incidents, data breaches, and company stock performance. This makes them a trusted input to make impactful security performance decisions.
Ensuring Compliance and Operational Resilience with Bitsight Data
As the framework for creating the methodology behind our ratings, Bitsight uses the US Chamber of Commerce’s Principles for Fair and Accurate Security Ratings—which we helped develop. Sophisticated algorithms produce daily security ratings that range from 250 to 900, and include 23 risk vectors grouped into three categories of security controls: compromised systems, user behavior, and diligence. Read our principles to get more information on how Bitsight calculates its security ratings.
This broad data-scanning technology provides an outside-in view of your organization's security posture, along with your third-party business ecosystem. Instead of taking a guesswork approach, security ratings provide a data-backed view of your cyber performance and that of your vendors—a critical component to supply chain resilience. In fact, supply chain cybersecurity is considered an integral part of the cybersecurity risk management measures under Article 21 of the NIS 2 directive. And DORA lists ICT Third Party Risk Management as one of its five pillars.
There are three ways in which Bitsight data facilitates compliance and operational resilience:
- Supporting critical workflows across risk, performance, and exposure—from vendor risk assessments to vulnerability detection and response, and holistic third-party risk management. Also providing a 12-month historical view of risk across the supply chain.
- Mapping risk vector data to control frameworks and questionnaire-based assessments—from ensuring your vendor evaluation considers regulatory requirements to enforcing them with continuous monitoring.
- Enabling a ‘trust but verify’ approach to complement vendor responses and security artifacts with a wide range of insights and objective findings on vendors’ security controls, adding an extra layer of verification to vendor risk assessments.
As the ENISA report concludes, organisations should establish a corporate-wide supply chain management system based on third-party risk management (TPRM) covering risk assessment, supplier relationship management, vulnerability management, and quality of products.
Most importantly, good practices should cover all entities which play a role in the supply chain of ICT/OT products and services, from production to consumption. Evidence shows that security ratings are becoming an important part of that equation.
Download your free, customized security ratings report to get a snapshot of your organization’s cybersecurity program highlights, including your Bitsight Security Rating and a benchmark of how you compare to industry peers.