Promo.com, an Israeli-based video marketing creation site, disclosed a data breach at the hands of an undisclosed third-party supplier that compromised the records of 22M users. The breach came to light after Promo.com found its data being given away for free on a hacker forum. Cybersecurity experts commented below on the importance of vetting third-party partners.
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It appears as if Promo was collecting a large amount of data from its customers, inclusive of geolocation data. It is important for users to read their End User License Agreements to get an understanding of what data a company is collecting , where will it be stored and for how long. Promo has laid blame on a third party vendor. As this investigation unfolds, it will be interesting to see what role the vendor played in the supply chain and what if any GDPR fines may be leveraged.
Having 3rd parties and outsourcing elements of work is a reality in today\’s business world, but outsourcing any activity does not absolve an organisation of its security responsibilities. This is another incident where an organisation is stating the breach has occurred from a third party, which may be true, but it\’s still a breach for which they are responsible. Whenever handing over data to third parties, or allowing them access, organisations need to ensure they have adequate security controls in place and they have means to test the effectiveness of those said controls.
For the impacted users, it\’s a case of groundhog day – another company breached and the same advice applies, change passwords if they\’re reused anywhere, keep an eye on credit score, and send a strongly-worded email to the provider expressing their disdain.
Your attack surface is a lot bigger than you think. The Promo breach serves as a reminder of the importance of vetting your third-party partners. If your third-party partners don’t have equal or greater security standards, they are a security risk. As your organization grows and scales, so does your list of third-party vendors, so it is in every organization’s best interest to always vet the security of their vendors.
The overarching issue with third-party security is accountability. If your organization collects customer data or has privileged access, it is your responsibility to keep that data protected and fines should be issued if an organization fails to do so. If your organization has access to customer data, I recommend employing a layered approach to security, which requires advanced antivirus detection over legacy tools and educating your staff on what they can do to prevent security incidents.