Dangerous Liaisons of the 21st Century
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2025 3:54 am
The practice of outsourcing business processes to third parties, whose tasks may include network infrastructure management, website support, CRM services, and many other IT processes, is very common today. This inevitably leads to third parties gaining access to critical organization systems and confidential information, financial and customer data. Granting contractors powers that only trusted employees have is undoubtedly associated with certain risks, but the reality is that organizations sometimes find it difficult, if not impossible, to refuse to outsource some of their responsibilities. However, IT outsourcers can increase the transparency of their work to the client if they use monitoring of network user activity, especially privileged accounts. This will significantly increase the level of trust between the parties, since this monitoring allows you to see in real time what is happening in their IT systems, who and when gained access to confidential information.
However, it is important to consider the security risks that most organizations face when outsourcing important tasks. First and foremost, the problem of security management is caused by insider kuwait mobile database that aim to seize critical intellectual assets. The risk of a security breach is further increased by the fact that you will be providing access to third parties, which can potentially weaken the defense because they will have the same access rights and privileges as the company’s employees. Secondly, there are two main risk factors where the lack of proper built-in security increases the vulnerability of the organization: high employee turnover in the company and the use of IT outsourcing services. In this case, the organization is not only threatened by the loss of intellectual property, but also there is a high probability of transferring valuable information to competitors or other third parties.
Often, such attacks are carefully planned and can go unnoticed until the attackers have completely penetrated an organization’s IT system. One of the most high-profile cases of security breaches involving external contractors was the case that occurred with the American company Target in December 2013. At that time, the company’s credit card data was stolen. The incident was kept secret for a long time, as the company wanted to settle legal issues, since the incident affected more than 200,000 of the company’s clients. Initially, the company estimated the damage at $150 million, but according to Reuters, the real cost was more than $200 million.
However, it is important to consider the security risks that most organizations face when outsourcing important tasks. First and foremost, the problem of security management is caused by insider kuwait mobile database that aim to seize critical intellectual assets. The risk of a security breach is further increased by the fact that you will be providing access to third parties, which can potentially weaken the defense because they will have the same access rights and privileges as the company’s employees. Secondly, there are two main risk factors where the lack of proper built-in security increases the vulnerability of the organization: high employee turnover in the company and the use of IT outsourcing services. In this case, the organization is not only threatened by the loss of intellectual property, but also there is a high probability of transferring valuable information to competitors or other third parties.
Often, such attacks are carefully planned and can go unnoticed until the attackers have completely penetrated an organization’s IT system. One of the most high-profile cases of security breaches involving external contractors was the case that occurred with the American company Target in December 2013. At that time, the company’s credit card data was stolen. The incident was kept secret for a long time, as the company wanted to settle legal issues, since the incident affected more than 200,000 of the company’s clients. Initially, the company estimated the damage at $150 million, but according to Reuters, the real cost was more than $200 million.