Building Resilience Against Zero-Day Threats in Third-Party Risk Management

Global zero-day incidents often reveal the vulnerability of organizations to risks originating from third-party resources. These moments are wake-up calls, highlighting the need for effective third-party risk management (TPRM). However, responding to such events is rarely straightforward. Identifying affected third parties, gauging their risk to your ecosystem, and collaborating with them to address vulnerabilities can feel insurmountable, especially at scale.

Establishing repeatable, efficient workflows is key to overcoming these challenges. With the right processes, organizations can quickly identify vulnerabilities, centralize communication, and manage resolutions effectively — turning chaos into collaboration.

Adopting Continuous Monitoring

Many organizations evaluate their third-party risk posture infrequently, relying on outdated assessments that fail to reflect current threats. Continuous monitoring is essential to maintain an up-to-date understanding of third-party vulnerabilities and risks. Regularly collecting data, such as compliance status, ransomware susceptibility, and MITRE framework ratings, enables organizations to identify potential risks proactively.

Establishing a strong foundation with continuous monitoring is only the beginning. To fully address the complexities of third-party risk, organizations must go beyond tracking vulnerabilities — they must act decisively when zero-day events arise. This requires a structured approach encompassing three critical processes: identification, outreach, and resolution. These processes enable organizations to transition from simply monitoring risks to actively mitigating them.

Identifying Risks Efficiently

The identification process is often one of the most time-consuming aspects of TPRM. Security teams may spend weeks manually compiling data, contacting internal departments, and creating outreach lists. To make identification more efficient, organizations should:

• Prepare for the unexpected: Develop business continuity plans, impact analyses, and scenario planning to anticipate potential incident effects. This preparation enables faster, more focused triaging when a zero-day event occurs.
• Use automation: Automated tools can streamline identification by consolidating third-party data into a single location, parsing risk assessments, and mapping gaps against compliance frameworks.
• Consolidate communication: Avoid fragmented workflows by consolidating identification efforts into a unified platform, enabling teams to move quickly to the outreach phase.

Improving Outreach for Better Engagement

Traditional outreach methods overwhelm third parties with vague or irrelevant questions, leading to delays or incomplete responses. Organizations can build trust with vendors and suppliers by ensuring targeted and efficient outreach. To enhance the outreach process, organizations should:

• Ask specific questions: Provide targeted, accurate information about identified risks and outline concrete next steps.
• Centralize conversations: Facilitate communication through a single platform to ensure all internal and external stakeholders remain aligned.
• Track changes automatically: Automated reporting tools reduce manual effort, provide a clear audit trail, and ensure that no details are overlooked.

Resolving Issues Collaboratively

Achieving resolution requires persistence and a collaborative approach. Traditional workflows often fail due to unclear expectations, lengthy bureaucratic delays, and disjointed processes. To streamline resolutions, organizations can:

• Foster partnerships: Treat third parties as collaborators rather than adversaries. Share clear, accurate, relevant insights to minimize uncertainty and encourage cooperation.
• Use real-time updates: Tools that immediately reflect third-party responses and updates help prevent delays and maintain momentum.
• Enable shared efforts: Joining networks that share third-party responses across organizations allows for collective efficiency. When one customer’s concerns are addressed, others benefit, reducing redundant outreach.

Turning Risk Into Opportunity

By transitioning from reactive to proactive TPRM workflows, organizations can mitigate risks faster, strengthen vendor relationships, and build resilience against zero-day events. Continuous monitoring, automation, and centralized communication are no longer optional — they are essential components of a robust cybersecurity strategy. The journey from chaos to collaboration is challenging, but organizations can transform their third-party risk management processes with the right foundation.

Bob Maley

Bob Maley is the CSO of Black Kite. Bob has been involved in security for most of his career, initially in physical security as a law enforcement officer. In those years, Bob acquired a broad range of expertise and experience in all areas of security, including third-party security, risk assessment, architecture, design, policy development, deployment, incident response and investigation, and enterprise solution deployments in areas including intrusion detection, data protection, compliance, and incident reporting and response. His previous roles include Head of PayPal’s Global Third-Party Security & Inspections team and CISO for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Bob’s certifications include CRISC, CTPRP, and OpenFAIR.