How Vendor Management Software Can Help with Regulatory Compliance

Back at the end of 2013 there was a credit card payment breach that would change how companies are required to do business moving forward. This breach occurred at a very well known company called Target. The specifics of this breach have been discussed and re-hashed for 2 years on every website and blog in the IT Security space but one thing remains clear and a game changer: The need to monitor your vendors and know what risks they pose to your business. 

As you might have heard, the Target breach occurred as a result of criminals gaining access to the Target network through one of their vendors, an HVAC vendor nonetheless. From there, they were able to navigate the Target network and ultimately take away the private, sensitive information of up to 70 million people, including yours truly! By now you must be asking, what does vendor management software have to do with the Target breach and how can it help me maintain compliance with various Federal, State and Industry regulations?

PCI DSS 3.0 was released last year and with it came a new requirement for businesses to monitor and ultimately become responsible for the security and PCI compliance of the vendors they do business with that have access to cardholder data. Similarly, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) released guidance that financial institutions need to take a more proactive approach to managing and mitigating the risk associated with third party vendors and providers. This is a big step for regulatory agencies and industry regulators to take as there is a significant amount of pressure put on businesses to be effective in managing these added tasks. This is how a well designed, easy to use vendor management software program can effectively assist an organization. Here are some examples of how:

• Centralized Vendor and Data Management - You can't manage what you can't measure and having a centralized repository of all your vendors is critical to gaining a 360 degree view into your current risk status. Monitoring things like a vendors PCI Report on Compliance or SSAE 16 and their associated renewal dates is far easier if you have one place to look
• Comprehensive Reporting - What vendors PCI ROC is about to expire? When is their SSAE 16 due for renewal? How can you know if you don't have a comprehensive reporting feature to filter your vendors by classification, report due date or other key performance indicators? You don't know what you can't measure!
• Easy to Use Interface - This is often times overlooked and people often say "why is this important for maintaining regulatory compliance?" The answer is simple in that if it is difficult to use, you are not going to use the software, thus rendering it useless. You know how I mentioned that you don't know what you can't measure? Well you can't measure anything without a system in place that you actually use and is easy to use!

There you have it, some great reasons and examples of how vendor management software can assist your organization in not only centralizing your vendors and all of their specific information, but how this type of program will help you ultimately achieve and maintain compliance with various Federal, State and Industry Regulations.