Acronis released the findings of its second annual Cyber Protection Week survey, which uncovered a dangerous disconnect between the need for organizations to keep their data protected and the ineffective investments they’ve made trying to reach that goal. While 2020 saw companies purchase new systems to enable and secure remote workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, those investments are not paying off. The global survey discovered that 80% of companies now run as many as 10 solutions simultaneously for their data protection and cybersecurity needs – yet more than half of those organizations suffered unexpected downtime last year because of data loss.

The recent SolarWinds breach has brought vendor risk management into the spotlight. With 59% of data breaches being traced to third-party vendors and the average enterprise having 67 vendors with privileged access, managing third party risk is no longer optional, says Tony Howlett, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of SecureLink. Here, we speak to Howlett about why security and risk professionals need to take control of their third-party exposure and implement safeguards and processes to reduce their vulnerability.