Accounting for the risk third-party systems and services bring into a healthcare organization is a top challenge for hospitals and health systems trying to bolster their cybersecurity posture.

As healthcare digital ecosystems continue to expand, the number of vendors, partners and contractors with access to the enterprise’s network can greatly increase. Healthcare organizations need to understand the real risk posed by third parties if they are to successfully protect their data and organizations.

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CyberGRX, vendor of a third-party cyber risk management platform, and BitSight, a security ratings services firm, have partnered to embed BitSight’s proprietary security ratings capabilities within the CyberGRX Exchange, a marketplace for sharing third-party cyber risk security information.

Integrating BitSight’s objective, quantitative measurements of companies’ security performance into the CyberGRX Exchange provides a comprehensive view of third-party cyber risk, the companies said. The combination of BitSight’s security ratings, generated through externally observable data, with CyberGRX’s third-party cyber risk assessments can enable organizations to make more informed decisions and scale their third-party risk programs, the companies added.

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“BitSight’s ability to continuously rate the security performance of third parties from an outside-in perspective will strengthen the CyberGRX Exchange,” said Fred Kneip, CEO of CyberGRX. “Combining their proven non-intrusive approach to evaluating risk and security performance with the inside-out view our platform provides is a powerful proposition for customers: a comprehensive, continuous, 360-degree view of third-party cyber risk exposure.”

Enterprises today require access to accurate, continuous and actionable information about third-party cyber risk, said Jacob Olcott, vice president of strategic partnerships at BitSight.

“CyberGRX helps to solve that problem for companies across the world, and our security ratings provide the unique, objective data that organizations need to scale their third-party risk programs and make more informed business decisions,” Olcott said.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com