Trusting Vendors With Your Data: The Importance of SOC 2 Compliance

Your cybersecurity strategy should begin with DNS filtering, but it definitely shouldn’t end there. In fact, your strategy needs to include more than just the security platforms and safeguards your own organization uses— it needs to include your vendors as well.

Third-party vendors are a requirement for any business to run smoothly, but in utilizing vendors, you’re also sharing your data with them. How much access do they have? The average organization utilizes somewhere between 250 and 500 third-party vendors. If each of those vendors also uses 250 vendors, you can see how your data can quickly be caught inside a very messy web.

Do you trust that vendors are keeping your data secure? 

Or are they putting your data at risk of being part of a breach?

It takes an average of 277 days for an organization to find out that their data has been breached via a third-party. Bad actors have it easy when they’re able to breach a vendor — why gain access to only one organization’s data when you could gain access to all of their customers?

How do these breaches happen? A few ways:

Phishing— Lack of employee security awareness training and DNS security leaves an organization open to phishing attacks. From here, bad actors gain employee credentials or access to the company’s network.

Malware— Lack of anti-virus and DNS security on endpoint devices leaves you open to malware and allows malicious access to your network.

Lack of encryption— Leaving data unencrypted, either on a drive or in the process of transmitting to a vendor, can lead to stolen credentials and internal threats because sensitive data is easily accessible

Poor password management— Storing passwords in plaintext, reusing passwords across websites, not using multi-factor authentication, and post-it notes, oh my! Hacking software can guess billions of password combinations in seconds. Once they have yours, bad actors are able to log right into your network.

How do you ensure your third-party vendors won’t fall victim to a breach?

The short answer: Vet their security strategy.

As you can imagine, vetting 250-500 vendors’ security strategies is a major task. However, some compliance certifications show that an auditor did that vetting for you.

SOC 2 Compliance 

SOC 2 (Systems and Organization Controls 2) is a security framework that organizations should follow to ensure they’re protecting customer data and mitigating vulnerabilities.

SOC 2 compliance ensures that an organization has defined their security policies and processes under the 5 Trust Services Criteria, and that they actually follow them.

5 Trust Services Criteria:

  • Security
  • Privacy
  • Processing Integrity
  • Confidentiality
  • Availability

All 5 criteria do not necessarily apply to every organization, but every SOC 2 report includes the Security criteria. If others are applicable, those must be included in their report as well.

Utilizing SOC 2 compliant vendors should be part of your cybersecurity strategy

Your cybersecurity strategy should not be limited to the policies you have in place. It shouldn’t end with how you handle your own data or how you train employees.

It’s growing increasingly important to consider how your third-party vendors are handling your data, as well.

Committing to utilizing vendors that can prove they’ve done the work to create and follow effective security processes and policies reduces the ease of bad actors looking to gain access to your data. When layered with a DNS filtering service, firewalls, least-privileged data access, and employee training, this step helps keep your organization safer than most.

Obviously this is not a guarantee that your data will never be compromised, but it is an important piece of the puzzle. 

Learn more about the importance of SOC 2 in this on-demand webinar, Trusting Vendors With Your Data: The Importance of SOC 2 Compliance.

Search
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.
Latest posts
Fall 2023 G2 Awards Are Here: 29 Badges and Counting For DNSFilter Fall 2023 G2 Awards Are Here: 29 Badges and Counting For DNSFilter

DNSFilter has been named a leader in Secure Web Gateway, DNS Security, and Web Security categories on G2, earning an impressive 29 badges and named in 29 reports. This includes new badges such as High Performer EMEA and Leader Americas in the Web Security category. 

These accolades are a testament to our commitment to our customers. We are particularly proud of our badges for ease of implementation, administration, and quality support. Providing ...

DNSFilter CEO Reacts to France’s “Bill to Secure and Regulate the Digital Space” DNSFilter CEO Reacts to France’s “Bill to Secure and Regulate the Digital Space”

At the end of June, Vint Cerf, one of the “fathers of the internet” published an article on Medium in response to a drafted bill by the French Republic. You can read the original French proposal here, but we’ll also include a version translated into English at the bottom of this article.

First, let me provide a quick summary of what the bill is proposing:

Spurred on by the proliferation of cyber threats and attacks, the government of France is pr...

Your Security Stack & Fantasy Football Team Have More in Common Than You'd Think Your Security Stack & Fantasy Football Team Have More in Common Than You'd Think

If you’re a football fan like many of us at DNSFilter, it’s possible you have a fantasy league in the office or with your friends. Our #sportsball slack channel is keeping many of us going as the weather cools down and the days get shorter. It’s a fun way to discuss and track the football season (and potentially win bragging rights and the respect of your fantasy prowess). 

Now you might be thinking, “How on Earth could fantasy football possibly ...

Explore More Content

Ready to brush up on something new? We've got even more for you to discover.