“It is abundantly clear that, in many respects, a firm’s level of cybersecurity is only as good as the cybersecurity of its vendors.” - Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York State’s top financial regulator. This is the biggest threat to enterprise cybersecurity and few companies know how vulnerable they are. Target didn’t know, neither did Home Depot or Goodwill. This infographic illustrates the threats all network managers and security professionals need to be aware of as they secure their information systems.

1. 62%
About SecureLink
Businesses rely on the SecureLink platform to bridge the gap between enterprise technology
vendors and their customers. The SecureLink solution streamlines support operations and
reduces liability for vendors while ensuring security, accountability, and compliance for their clients.
Recognized as experts in third party vendor access and remote support, SecureLink serves more
than 30,000 organizations globally. Founded in 2003, the company is privately owned and based
in Austin, Texas.
COMMON EXPLOITS
THIRD-PARTY REMOTE SUPPORT THREATS
Vendor Access Process Risks
of 450 data breaches
studied were linked to a
third-party component of IT
system administration
②
of security leaders strongly agreed that the risk level to their
organization was increasing due to the number of interactions
and connections with customers, suppliers and partners.
①
“A firm’s level of cybersecurity is only as good as the cybersecurity of its vendors.”
Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York State's first Superintendent of Financial Services
①
IBM CISO Assessment, 2014
②
Trustwave Global Security Report, 2013
③
CyberArk All Access Pass, 2014
④
Spiceworks Voice of IT Panel - VPN Survey
⑤
Gartner: 2014 CIO Agenda
⑥
EiQ Networks Survey, 2014
⑦
PWC Global State of Information Security Survey, 2015
Sources:
of the network managers
who allow VPN access state
their vendors can access
department-specific
business applications (i.e.
database software,
accounting software)④
“Backoff” (POS malware)
of all targeted cyber attacks
exploit privileged accounts
during the attack process③
November 2013
40,000,000
Credit Cards
July 2014
868,000
Payment Cards
September 2014
56,000,000
Credit Cards
May 2011
150
Locations
October 2014
216
Locations
42%don’t feel they have the
right skills and
capabilities to prevent
breach⑤
9%of security leaders
name CPO as top
strategic partner①
15%believe their
organizations are
“well prepared” for a
security breach⑥
Vulnerabilities
Shared credentials / Privileged accounts
Limited Audit and Accountability
NOTABLE BREACHES
63%
Personnel Risks
The Future
Virtual Private Network (VPN) Desktop Sharing
conducted an inventory of all third parties that
handle personal data of employees and customers⑦
do not perform risk assessments on third- party
vendors (up from 47% in 2013)⑦
SecureLink, Inc. 12600 Hill Country Blvd. Suite 200, Austin, TX 78738
ofc: 512.637.8700 // fax: 512.637.8701 // securelink.com
50% of IT professionals feel unprepared
infections
of businesses②
1000
80%
2/3
Vulnerabilities
Easy target for Hackers
Full network access / credentials
that originated from stolen third-party credentials or the
exploitation of desktop sharing tools used for third-party remote support.