From Chaos to Control: Building a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Framework [Part 4 of 6]

You’ve identified your vendors. You’ve assessed their risk.

Now it’s time to bring structure to the process.

A TPRM framework helps you manage third-party cyber risk consistently, efficiently, and at scale.

What Is a TPRM Framework?

It’s a system of policies, processes, and tools that helps you:

- Evaluate vendor risk before onboarding

- Monitor risk continuously

- Respond to incidents effectively

- Stay compliant with regulations

It’s not just about security—it’s about governance and resilience.

Key Components of a Strong TPRM Program

1. Governance & Ownership

- Define roles across security, procurement, legal, and business units

- Align with enterprise risk strategy

2. Vendor Lifecycle Management

- Pre-contract: assessments & due diligence

- Contracting: SLAs, breach clauses, audit rights

- Post-contract: monitoring & offboarding

3. Risk Tiering & Prioritization

- Focus on high-risk vendors

- Automate low-risk workflows

4. Assessment & Monitoring Tools

- Questionnaires

- External risk ratings

- Continuous monitoring platforms

5. Incident Response Integration

- Include vendors in breach simulations

- Align with internal IR protocols

6. Documentation & Reporting

- Maintain a vendor risk register

- Track remediation & reassessments

- Report to leadership & regulators

Tools That Help

Consider resources such as:

- Health Industry Cybersecurity – Sector Mapping and Risk Toolkit (SMART) Link: https://healthsectorcouncil.org/smart-toolkit/

- NIST: https://www.nist.gov/risk-management

Let’s Talk

Does your organization have a formal TPRM framework?

What’s worked well—or what’s been a challenge?

Connect with me or leave a comment below.

Next week: “When the Call Is Coming from Outside the House” — how to respond to third-party incidents.

#CyberSecurity #ThirdPartyRisk #TPRM #VendorRisk #RiskManagement #Governance #Compliance #Infosec #DataProtection #HSCC