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Tripwire Study: IT Professionals Underestimate Impact of Business Partner Security
[April 21, 2016]

Tripwire Study: IT Professionals Underestimate Impact of Business Partner Security


Tripwire, Inc., a leading global provider of endpoint detection and response, security and compliance and IT operations solutions, today announced the results of a study conducted for Tripwire (News - Alert) by Dimensional Research. The study, which was carried out in December 2015, assessed the challenges that business partners bring to cyber security. Study respondents included over 320 IT professionals who have visibility into the security of their organization's supply chain.

According to Tripwire's study, eighty-one percent of IT professionals are confident in their ability to protect sensitive customer data. However, this assurance does not extend to their organization's business partners. Nearly half (forty-seven percent) of the respondents are not confident in the security of their business partners and suppliers.

"Every organization needs to evaluate the security risks associated with their business partners," said Tim Erlin, director of IT security and risk strategist for Tripwire. "Partnerships provide an important growth mechanism for organizations today, but they also introduce risk. Organizations must invest in securing their points of interaction with partners."

Additional findings from the study include:

  • While ninety-five percent of respondents believe a supplier or partner security breach could expose valuable data, sixty-one percent said they were unconcerned or have bigger concerns.
  • Less than half (forty-four percent) said their organizations require partners and suppliers to pass security audits before they sign a contract with them.
  • Thirty-four percent use partners and suppliers that fail to meet their security standards.
  • A quarter (twenty-five percent) admitted their organizations do not evaluate whether suppliers met their security requirements.
  • Half said they make exceptions or offer different standards for some partners.



Weaknesses in business partner and supplier cyber security can have disastrous impacts on businesses. Vulnerabilities in third-party security may have played a key role in many high profile security breaches, such as the Panama Papers incident and the Target breach.

For more information about the survey please visit: http://www.tripwire.com/company/research/tripwire-2016-supply-chain-survey/


About Tripwire

Tripwire is a leading provider of endpoint detection and response, security, compliance and IT operations solutions for enterprises, service providers and government agencies. Tripwire solutions are based on high-fidelity asset visibility and deep endpoint intelligence combined with business context; together these solutions integrate and automate security and IT operations. Tripwire's portfolio of enterprise-class solutions includes configuration and policy management, file integrity monitoring, vulnerability management, log management, and reporting and analytics. Learn more at tripwire.com, get security news, trends and insights at tripwire.com/blog or follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @TripwireInc.


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