4 cybersecurity questions to examine before integrating a SaaS Marketplace.

Nowadays, cybersecurity is surely a priority for your company. Many companies have already suffered cyberattacks. According to a study by Orange Cyberdefense, the average number of cyberattacks per company amounted to 42 monthly in 2021. Among these, we can identify 10 common types of cyberattacks: DoS (Denial of Service Attack), malware (spyware, ransomware, viruses, worms, trojan …), Phishing, Man-in-the-Middle (MitM), SQL injections, Zero-day exploit, Password attack, Cross-site scripting, Rootkits, Internet of Things (IoT) attacks.

Having said that, it is good to know if the editor of your B2B marketplace has a plan to protect your company's data, prevent breaches, and address vulnerabilities.

Before integrating a new B2B marketplace solution into your company's ecosystem, cybersecurity leaders should ask applicants the following questions during the audit process:

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1. What is the policy on privacy and security?

Privacy is a growing concern for users. Companies need to take it into consideration. According to KPMG’s study, 86% of respondents feel increasingly concerned about data privacy. 78% of respondents expressed concerns about the amount of data collected. It’s essential to develop a deep understanding of how enterprise and user personally identifiable information (PII) is handled. If personal information is shared with third parties, what parts of the personal information are shared and with whom?

Data privacy requests must be processed with the utmost discretion in accordance to the applicable local regulations. Security managers should verify that they comply with GDPR and/or CCPA. When processing and storing company and user data, there must be an airtight data management process for those who have access to it.

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2. What is the process of transmitting and storing user data?

Security professionals need to be aware of where corporate data is stored (US, Europe, etc.) and who has access to it. Despite having headquarters in the United States, if data travels through overseas servers, security leaders must be aware of all storage and management locations. This is not only a matter of compliance, but may also be one of national security. We can quote the Patriot Act and the Cloud Act in the United States. It is essential to obtain a storage space on its territory (country, continent, etc.).

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3. What are the vulnerability management methods for the marketplace solution?

The best defense is a good attack. As online threats and malware evolve, they can overpower any security system that an enterprise might have in place, making frequent scanning and monitoring of the system critical.

Companies cannot afford to wait to be the next headline to make these changes. Now is the time to prioritize safety features, such as vulnerability scanning for web servers, applications, and databases. Automating these threat detection and scanning services will additionally help enterprise teams focus on product and business optimization.

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4. Are there any complaints about privacy or security filed against the vendor lately?

Legislation around the world is turning to cybersecurity as a national security issue, these issues will become table stakes to ensure that a marketplace provider has done enough to ensure the security and reliability of their product.

Security leaders need to ensure their vendor of marketplace is meeting specific requirements without introducing undue risk to the business. Ideally, Software partners should undergo the same annual audits and security certifications to bring you peace of mind.

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