Security – if you’re not taking it seriously, you’re likely not going to be in business long. With the continued increase in cyber threats and attacks and the damage successful attacks can cause businesses, security absolutely must be top of mind.
It’s why the security space is so active – vendors, MSPs, and MSSPs all are being called upon to protect their customers. But, it’s not just the end customers that must take a security-first mindset. Tech vendors, too, must ensure their products and services don’t create security gaps that expose their own and their customers’ networks and data.
In fact, if they can’t prove they have taken appropriate measures, vendors risk losing business. Forty-five percent of respondents to Whistic’s 2022 State of Vendor Security Report. say they had deals pushed back because they could not respond to a security review in time. Another 34% lost a deal entirely because they were unable to respond to a security assessment quickly enough, despite salespeople spending more than 10 hours a month responding to security reviews.
The study also showed a 22% year-over-year increase in the number of vendors that companies assess annually and highlighted the strain that increase has on infosec teams.
Companies are moving toward automation and standardization of the assessment process to prevent future deals from potentially being lost. The Whistic Vendor Security Network will simplify the process for buyers and sellers and will enable vendors to easily share a profile that will include their relevant security documentation with customers, while making it possible for buyers to conduct zero-touch assessments of those profiles.
“We believe the Whistic Vendor Security Network is the best way to advance this expectation with transparency and reliability, to create trusted relationships that save millions of dollars in efficiency and potentially millions more in the prevention of breaches,” said Nick Sorensen, CEO of Whistic.
In support of these findings, the study found 82% of respondents are willing to conduct on-demand assessments using previously completed questionnaires, while 80% of vendors said they would make security documentation available publicly to customers and prospects as long as they had the ability to control who sees it and for how long.
Findings in the report come from two surveys conducted earlier in 2022, featuring 315 respondents working in infosec and cybersecurity and 303 respondents working in SaaS sales.
For the latest information about the MSP cyber landscape, join MSP Expo 2022, delivering four days of education and networking specifically focused on the MSP community, including one full track dedicated to security. MSP Expo 2022 takes place June 21-24, 2022 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and is collocated alongside the other #TECHSUPERSHOW events, including ITEXPO, Future of Work Expo, IoT Evolution Expo, The Blockchain Event, and more.
Edited by
Erik Linask
