The next stop on our journey focuses on those that you rely on: supply chains and third parties. Working with external partners can be difficult. But, there is a silver lining. Recent attacks have resulted in an industry wake-up call when it comes to cybersecurity resilience.

You see, the purpose of using external partners is to take advantage of a capability that your organization did not have, or the vendor was just better at than you. In turn, there was an offering or efficiency incentive where, for an exchange, your organization could operate more productively. Call it the trade-off.

It’s no different than any sports team looking to make a trade. When an organization is looking to partner with an external group, it will perform: