If you’re part of a risk management team at a State, Local or Education (SLED) entity, you know how critical it is to manage your supply chain carefully. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially for organizations with small or less experienced compliance teams.
Luckily, you don’t have to go it alone when it comes to assessing and mitigating third-party risks in your supply chain. Compliance frameworks like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management Framework take much of the guesswork out of risk assessment, incident response and other aspects of third-party risk management (TPRM).
Learn howNIST supply chain management can help your SLED organization improve oversight, reduce downstream risk and protect mission-critical services.
Why Third-Party Risk Management Is Essential to Supply Chain Security
Minimizing risks, threats and vulnerabilities is the ultimate goal of any compliance program and supply chain security is no exception. But even locally or regionally limited supply chains can pose complicated potential problems, especially for SLED services that depend on data storage providers.
Adhering to best practices like those of NIST can be critical to avoid the consequences of operating with insufficient supply chain security. Failing to properly identify and mitigate supply chain management risks can lead to:
- Interruptions in services to your community: For SLED entities in particular, setbacks like security breaches hurt more than the members of your organization. Strengthening your supply chain security helps protect your community from possible interruptions in essential services.
- Falling prey to criminal or malicious activity: Even small organizations can become targets for criminals looking to exploit weaknesses in your cybersecurity using malicious software, phishing attempts and other forms of cybercrime.
- Legal consequences such as fines and penalties: Overlooking or contributing to a significant risk can cause your organization to run afoul of relevant regulations, which may come with serious financial or judicial penalties.
Learn more: How to Mitigate Third-Party Risks in Your Supply Chain
What Makes SLED Environments Uniquely Challenging
State, Local and education organizations face specific supply chain challenges that can complicate compliance efforts and worsen the potential consequences of failure. That makes it all the more important to implement guidelines like the NIST cybersecurity framework to minimize risk and prevent disruptions.
Potential Pitfalls of Public Service
It’s no surprise that providers of SLED services are held to a higher set of standards due to the importance of their efforts. Many of these standards are enforced through privacy laws, consumer protection and data regulations. For example, educational organizations that manage student data are subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which mandates verification of external vendors’ data protection controls.
Learn more: Why Supply Chain Risk Management is Now a Public Sector Resilience Priority
New Challenges in Federal, State and Local Environments
Whether your organization relies on Federal grants, is subject to guidelines like StateRAMP and FedRAMP or simply needs to stay prepared for potential audits, you’ve no doubt found that cybersecurity requirements are only becoming more stringent over time. Auditors, grant suppliers and government agencies increasingly expect SLED organizations to thoroughly understand and control the security standards throughout their supply chains.
Learn more: How to Conduct an Effective Supply Chain Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
How Established TPRM Frameworks Can Strengthen SLED Supply Chains
Aligning your organization’s third-party risk management practices with established frameworks like NIST’s can simplify the increasingly complex challenge of complying with a patchwork of Federal, State and Local cybersecurity regulations.
At first, understanding and implementing these frameworks may seem like adding yet another to-do item to your compliance officers’ ever-growing list of responsibilities. But the reality is that investing appropriate time and resources into establishing a framework-backed compliance program is bound to pay off over time. With successful implementation, you can avoid service-interrupting and credibility-decreasing incidents, qualify for grants more easily and streamline the process of auditing, leaving more time for mission-critical work.
Learn more: Integrating NIST Supply Chain Risk Management into SLED Compliance Programs
The Basics of the NIST Risk Management Framework
NIST was originally founded in 1901, but the NIST Risk Management Framework (NIST RMF) didn’t come about until 2014, when the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) mandated the establishment of a Federal task force. The task force’s goal was to create a framework for risk management processes that could be used to set standards across Federal agencies and the organizations that work with them.
The end result of its efforts was the NIST RMF, a comprehensive, updated and legally-required set of guidelines for managing cybersecurity risks across information systems.
In this guide, we’ll focus on the specific supply chain risk management strategies outlined in the first revision to the NIST Special Publication 800-161. Because your compliance team can benefit from understanding the complete NIST RMF, we’ll also include links to NIST resources beyond supply chain-specific recommendations.
Learn more: What is NIST RMF? Risk Management Framework
NIST Best Practices for SLED Supply Chain Risk Management
The guidelines presented in NIST SP 800-161 are organized into three stages: foundational, sustaining and enhancing. If you’re at the beginning of implementing this cybersecurity framework, you’ll start with foundational practices before moving on to sustaining, and finally enhancing.
Learn more: Guide: Risk Management Strategies To Future-Proof Your Organization
Stage One: Foundational Practices
SLED entities beginning to establish governance structures should focus on these goals:
- Create a multidisciplinary team with dedicated roles for vendor and technology risk oversight
- Establish a governance structure featuring codified processes for assessing the criticality of your suppliers, products and services
- Integrate risk oversight practices into your existing quality control policies for supplier selection
Stage Two: Sustaining Practices
Only after creating a strong cybersecurity foundation should SLED organizations move on to these actions:
- Implement a program for monitoring suppliers, including determining, tracking and reporting on key supplier risk metrics
- Train internal employees and outside suppliers in supply chain risk management
- Collaborate with suppliers on addressing risks, contingency planning and incident response
Stage Three: Enhancing Practices
Advanced compliance programs can optimize their work by implementing these practices:
- Start creating predictive strategies to address potential risks before they become threats
- Automate your cybersecurity oversight operations wherever possible
- Codify procedures for optimizing risk response and return on investment
You can find more information about cybersecurity supply chain risk management best practices in the following publications:
- NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-39
- NIST Special Publication 800-30 r.1
- Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 199
- NIST Special Publication 800-53
- NIST Special Publication 800-161 Revision 1 Update 1
How Compliance Software Centralizes Frameworks and Streamlines Supply Chain Security
When your team is focused on providing and securing State, Local or Education services, you don’t want to have to keep redirecting your resources toward endless, inefficient cybersecurity review processes. Following trustworthy frameworks like those provided by NIST and other agencies is one way to streamline the creation of an effective supplier risk program.
Another time-saving measure is employing purpose-built software for creating compliant supply chain risk management programs. Build a more resilient public sector vendor ecosystem with Onspring’s platform and book a demo today.
Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider, supporting Public Sector organizations across Federal, State and Local Government agencies and Education and Healthcare markets. As the Master Government Aggregator for our vendor partners, including Onspring, we deliver solutions for Geospatial, Cybersecurity, MultiCloud, DevSecOps, Artificial Intelligence, Customer Experience and Engagement, Open Source and more. Working with resellers, systems integrators and consultants, our sales and marketing teams provide industry leading IT products, services and training through hundreds of contract vehicles. Explore the Carahsoft Blog to learn more about the latest trends in Government technology markets and solutions, as well as Carahsoft’s ecosystem of partner thought-leaders.
