In today’s digital-first business environment dominated by SaaS applications, organizations are increasingly relying on third-party vendors to provide essential cloud services and software solutions. The complexity and potential vulnerabilities in the SaaS supply chain are rapidly increasing as more vendors and services are added to the mix. That’s why effective vendor risk management (VRM) is a key strategy for identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to protect the integrity of your organization’s assets and data.
At the same time, common approaches to vendor risk assessment are too slow and static for the modern SaaS world. Most organizations simply apply their legacy on-premises software assessment technology to SaaS providers. Not only does this create a huge bottleneck, but it also causes organizations to inadvertently accept too much risk. To effectively adapt to the realities of modern work, two main aspects need to change: the length of initial assessments must decrease, and iterative assessments over time must increase.
How Nudge Security can help
To meet the need for a new, more flexible model, Nudge Security has created security profiles for over 97,000 SaaS applications, giving customers (and trial users) access to powerful, actionable security context and artificial intelligence Driven risk insights. Each security profile includes an application description, key vendor details, security certifications, breach history, data locations, secure program links, supported authentication methods, and SaaS supply chain details. Using the information in these profiles, you can:
- Accelerate supplier security review by obtaining key details through “one-stop shopping”
- Share approved requisition lists with employees
- Supplier evaluation to accelerate new technology procurement
- Get alerts when your SaaS provider or providers in your digital supply chain experience a breach
Let’s see how Nudge Security can help you through every step of supplier risk management.
1. View the security profiles of all SaaS applications used by anyone in your organization
Nudge Security discovers all SaaS accounts created by anyone in your organization within minutes of starting a free trial, and requires only a single point of integration: read-only API access to your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace email provider. No endpoint agents, web proxies, browser plug-ins, application integrations, or other complex deployment steps are required. Learn more about how it works here.
For every application used in an organization, Nudge Security provides vendor security profiles that include many of the details needed to conduct a vendor security audit. Details include application category and description, company headquarters, legal terms, data hosting details, and more. You can also view information about the vendor’s security program, breach history, compliance certifications, and links to the vendor’s public support for security engagement.
2. Provide a directory of employees’ approved applications
After you review the application, you can specify a status such as Approved, Acceptable, or Unacceptable to indicate whether use is allowed. For any app deemed “unacceptable,” an automated push can be triggered in response to new accounts, redirecting users to similar, approved apps, or asking them for context on why they need to use that particular app.
Additionally, Nudge Security makes it easy to build and share application catalogs with employees, so everyone in the organization can view a complete list of approved applications that meet appropriate security and compliance standards. Employees can peruse the list by category and submit access requests, which are sent directly to the technical owner of each application, whether that person is in the central IT department or not. This eliminates the need for IT to be an “event forwarder” between consumers and application owners, while still retaining visibility and centralized governance.
3. Accelerate supplier evaluation for new technology procurement
For applications that are not yet used by your organization, Nudge Security still allows you to access vendor security profiles to help you evaluate applications faster. You can search for any application and the results will indicate whether it is currently used in your organization.
From there, you can access the same vendor security profile details described above and update the application status to indicate whether it’s “Approved,” “Acceptable,” or “Unacceptable.” Any app that is deemed “Approved” can be automatically added to your App Catalog, and you can choose whether to also include apps with an “Acceptable” status in your App Catalog.
4. Dive into each application’s SaaS supply chain.
Nudge Security provides key capabilities to help you manage SaaS security, including SaaS supply chain visibility. This information is available in every SaaS security profile, and you can even click on each supply chain application to see its associated security profile.
Understanding your application’s SaaS supply chain can help you assess and manage data security risks and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
5. Receive alerts about breaches affecting SaaS providers
When an application used in your organization experiences a data breach, it could put your own organization’s security at risk. Nudge Security alerts you when an application used by your employees or an application in their supply chain experiences a data breach.
Within each security profile, you can see an overview of the application’s violation history, or a thumbs up if there are no known violations.
When an application you use or an application in the digital supply chain is affected by a breach, you will receive the following notifications so that you can take appropriate steps to assess and mitigate any potential impact.
Accelerate supplier risk assessment with Nudge Security
Through Nudge Security’s patented SaaS discovery approach, unparalleled vendor security profile database and automated workflows, you can effectively manage third-party risk while strengthening your organization’s SaaS security posture.
Start your 14-day free trial now
