Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT) is a security assessment template that attempts to generalize higher education information security and data protection questions and issues regarding cloud services for consistency and ease of use. HECVAT has various versions that are free to use and provide a consistent, streamlined third-party risk assessment framework.

When it comes to building a security program, one of the most frequently overlooked areas is that of vendor management. Organizations focus significant resources on internal security, such as vulnerability scans, centralized log management, or user training, while not extending the same diligence towards their third-parties. Organizations end up trusting the security of their network and data to an unknown and untested third-party. As we all know, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Engaging with third-party vendors for the provision of goods and services isn't new. The level of digital transformation, paired with the number of third-party relationships and business partners the average organization has is. Third-party risk management programs need to evolve the manage this ever evolving type of risk exposure. Enterprise-wide organizations rely on third and fourth-party vendors. And many of them have access to sensitive data.