In mid-March, UpGuard welcomed security professionals from APAC, EMEA, India, and the U.S. to participate in the first UpGuard Summit of 2024. This quarter’s event focused on third-party risk management (TPRM), specifically addressing how organizations can scale their TPRM programs to meet their evolving needs and defend their growing attack surfaces.
Highlights from Summit include the release of two, new cutting-edge products to the UpGuard platform: Managed Vendor Assessments and Trust Exchange. These two products enable security teams to streamline their processes and do more with fewer resources. Additionally, attendees gained actionable insights from security leaders at renowned organizations who shared how they’ve scaled their TPRM programs.
Whether you missed this quarter’s event or simply want to review the information presented, here’s a recap of all that happened. Also, stay tuned to the UpGuard Newsletter to learn how to save your spot for the next UpGuard Summit as soon as registration goes live.
Learn more about the #1 TPRM solution in the world: UpGuard Vendor Risk
UpGuard’s 2024 priorities
To kick off the first Summit of the year, Dan Bradbury, UpGuard’s Chief Product Officer, presented the company’s 2024 priorities and discussed the main problems it seeks to solve for cybersecurity professionals throughout the coming year. In total, Dan identified three main focus areas:
- Leveraging AI to remove manual effort from third-party cyber risk programs
- Transforming how organizations share their trusted information
- Empowering users to stay ahead of emerging cybersecurity threats
These focus areas will shape UpGuard’s priorities throughout 2024 and inform the company’s future product updates. To demonstrate its commitment to these priorities and its mission to guide organizations through the complexities and pitfalls of cyber risk management, UpGuard released two new product updates during Summit.
New product updates: Managed Vendor Assessments and Trust Exchange
For the past several years, UpGuard has focused on helping organizations streamline their third-party risk management programs, and for good reason. According to the World Economic Forum, 41% of data breaches originate from third-party relationships.
To help organizations safeguard themselves against vendor threats and expand its market-leading vendor risk products, UpGuard has released two innovative AI-powered solutions: Managed Vendor Assessments and Trust Exchange.
Here’s an overview of these two new and exciting UpGuard products:
- Managed Vendor Assessments is a new product where UpGuard does the vendor risk assessments for you. Delivered by expert analysts and supported by AI, Managed Vendor Assessments help users identify risks fast, save time and resources, and enable teams to concentrate on risk remediation with clear, comprehensive risk reports.
- Trust Exchange, a new offering available for free to security teams, streamlines the trust management process using AI tools and collaboration features to save time and accelerate sales. Trust Exchange empowers teams to complete security questionnaires 95% faster than traditional methods, taking the next step to eliminating questionnaires altogether.
During this quarter’s Summit, UpGuard showcased these two products in detailed Insight Sessions, where security experts walked through product capabilities, use cases, and functionality.
Insight Sessions: New product features and a fireside chat
Insight Sessions are a cornerstone of the UpGuard Summit. Led by esteemed leaders at UpGuard, these virtual seminars investigate pressing cybersecurity issues and explore practical solutions by leveraging product features. UpGuard meticulously crafted this quarter’s lineup to help security leaders enhance and expand their third-party risk management program.
UpGuard Summit March 2024 Insight Session lineup:
- The Future of Trust Management
- Scaling Your Vendor Risk Assessments
- Fireside Chat: The Evolution of the Cybersecurity Professional
As we dive into a detailed recap of each Insight Session, the first spotlighted the future of trust management and UpGuard’s innovative Trust Exchange feature.
The Future of Trust Management
In the first Insight Session of 2024, Jess Hooper, Senior Product Manager at UpGuard, comprehensively showcased the value of UpGuard’s new Trust Exchange. Throughout the session, Jess explained how the Trust Exchange harnesses the power of automation, AI, and intuitive workflows to alleviate the burden of security questionnaires, a notorious pain point for security teams and procurement professionals.
Highlights from Jess’s Insight Session:
- The newly launched UpGuard Trust Exchange revolutionizes trust management, providing a free suite of features to alleviate the burden of security questionnaires.
- The Trust Exchange employs powerful automation, AI capabilities, and intuitive workflows to streamline questionnaire completion and response processes.
- Thousands of companies are already experiencing the benefits of the Trust Exchange, including faster response times and stronger customer relationships.
- Explore the Trust Exchange today at upguard.com/trust and witness the evolution of trust management firsthand.
With the spotlight on Trust Exchange and its transformative impact on trust management, the next Insight Session shifted gears towards UpGuard’s Managed Vendor Assessments service, offering insights into streamlining vendor risk assessments for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.
Scaling Your Vendor Risk Assessments
In the next Insight Session of the March 2024 Summit, UpGuard’s Director of Third-Party Risk Management, Aaron Spiteri, showcased UpGuard’s Managed Vendor Assessments service. Throughout this session, Aaron addresses common risk assessment pain points and explains how our global team of in-house cybersecurity analysts use AI to enhance the depth and speed of analysis, allowing UpGuard to deliver vendor risk assessments twice as fast.
Highlights from Aaron’s Insight Session:
- Managed Vendor Assessments eliminates the hassle of manual risk assessments to deliver comprehensive assessments twice as fast by expert analysts.
- Key features of the offering include comprehensive risk assessments, actionable reports that utilize existing evidence without waiting on vendor responses, and industry-standard risk mapping practices.
- UpGuard users have already experienced the benefits of this product, including reduced assessment time and increased vendor responsiveness.
- “UpGuard has helped us cut down the time required to finish security assessments and directly address the pressure from the business to deliver at a faster pace,” the Head of Information Security at one of Australia’s largest retirement funds.
After Aaron completed his overview of Managed Vendor Assessments, the Summit schedule continued with an exciting fireside chat detailing the evolution of the cybersecurity professional.
Fireside Chat: The Evolution of the Cybersecurity Professional
In the final insight session of the March 2024 UpGuard Summit, Ian Chaplin, Head of Talent Acquisition at UpGuard, and Phil Ross, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), delved into the evolution of the cybersecurity profession and its implications for hiring strategies. During their conversation, Phil and Ian highlighted significant changes in cybersecurity while tracing the profession’s journey through various technological advancements, shifting paradigms, and increasing organizational demands.
Highlights from Phil and Ian’s Insight Session:
- Phil outlined critical changes in the cybersecurity landscape, from the early days when security roles were intertwined with IT functions to the modern era of specialized security professionals.
- Ian provided insights into contemporary hiring strategies, emphasizing talent assessment, role positioning, and fostering an inclusive hiring process.
- Phil and Ian encouraged hiring teams to challenge biases and align hiring practices with the evolving needs of their organization.
From talking about the evolution of the cybersecurity professional to a discussion with security experts, the next event featured a panel discussion with cybersecurity leaders from around the world.
Discussion with Security Leaders
After this quarter’s Insight Sessions, UpGuard gathered a panel of security leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities they faced when scaling their TPRM program. This quarter’s panel featured Peoplecare’s Head of Information Security and Strategic Sourcing, Neil Cameron, St John Ambulance Group’s IT Security & Governance Manager, Andrew Bullen, and Air New Zealand’s Cyber Consultancy Manager, Shahn Harris.
During the panel discussion, these leaders discussed the following topics:
- Developing their TPRM program
- Overcoming resourcing constraints
- Leveraging AI and automation to scale
Looking Forward: UpGuard Summit May 2024
The March 2024 UpGuard Summit was a resounding success that united security professionals from around the world to discuss the intricacies of scaling TPRM programs to meet the growing needs of an organization. As we look forward, stay tuned for the next UpGuard Summit to continue exploring cutting-edge strategies and solutions in the world of cybersecurity.
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