The Evolving Threat Landscape: Using Domain Intelligence to Vet Third Parties and Partners

In today’s interconnected business world, relying on a simple security questionnaire to vet third parties is no longer a sufficient defense. The supply chain has become a primary target for cyberattacks, and a partner's digital footprint can be a significant source of vulnerability that directly impacts your organization. From forgotten shadow IT assets to malicious look-alike domains, an external attack surface can hide considerable risks that a static questionnaire simply cannot uncover. To truly protect your business, you need a proactive approach that provides a continuous, outside-in view of your partners' digital presence.

The Power of Proactive Domain Permutation Analysis

ThreatNG’s Domain Name Permutations capability is a powerful solution for modern due diligence and third-party risk management. It moves beyond traditional vetting methods by proactively generating and analyzing potential domain variations of your partners' brands. By enriching this capability with a customizable list of user-defined Top-Level Domains (TLDs) and targeted keywords, you can uncover potential digital threats and suspicious domains that a potential partner might own.

For example, when vetting a new vendor, you could use ThreatNG to search for domain permutations that combine their brand name with keywords like "login" or "pay". ThreatNG would then uncover fraudulent domains like vendor-login.com or vendor-pay.net that could be used for phishing attacks targeting their customers or employees. This objective, external data provides you with a clear, unfiltered view of their digital risk exposure before you enter a business relationship.

A Bridge to Broader Solutions: Gaining a Holistic View

The intelligence gathered from domain permutation analysis is more than just a single finding; it serves as a critical bridge to a broader, more comprehensive risk assessment of your partners. By connecting this initial discovery to other ThreatNG capabilities, you can gain a complete and actionable view of a third party’s security posture.

Supply Chain & Third Party Exposure: Validating Security Posture

The information gathered from domain permutation analysis directly supports the broader Supply Chain & Third Party Exposure assessment. It provides objective, external data to validate a partner's security posture, moving beyond the static information provided in a traditional questionnaire. For example, by identifying fraudulent domains and their associated IP addresses and mail records, you can gain a complete view of a vendor's digital footprint. This helps you uncover hidden risks that may not be disclosed in a traditional questionnaire and ensures that their claims about brand protection and security are accurate. ThreatNG also provides other intelligence that helps with this assessment, such as Technology Stack and Cloud and SaaS Exposure, giving you a complete view of a vendor's external risk.

Sentiment and Financials: Revealing a Complete Risk Picture

Domain analysis can be correlated with a partner's Sentiment and Financials to reveal a more complete risk picture. For example, a search using keywords related to "awful" or "boycott" could uncover domains created by disgruntled customers or activists. If these findings are then cross-referenced with ThreatNG's financial intelligence from SEC filings, such as Form 8-Ks detailing recent cybersecurity incidents or lawsuits, it can paint a clearer picture of reputational and financial risk that might be tied to their security practices. ThreatNG’s ability to analyze online news and social media chatter allows you to stay ahead of the narrative and protect your digital reputation from potential crises.

External GRC Assessment: Enhancing Governance and Compliance

This proactive monitoring can also contribute significantly to your organization’s overall external Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) posture. ThreatNG provides a continuous, outside-in evaluation of an organization's GRC posture by identifying exposed assets and digital risks from an unauthenticated attacker’s perspective. These findings are then mapped to relevant GRC frameworks, such as PCI DSS. For instance, discovering a fraudulent domain impersonating a third-party payment portal would directly flag a compliance concern under PCI DSS, which requires organizations to protect cardholder data. By using this capability to vet third parties, you can proactively uncover and address external security and compliance gaps related to your third-party relationships, strengthening your overall GRC standing.

Take Control of Your Supply Chain Risk

In the modern threat landscape, the security of your organization is intrinsically tied to the security of your partners. Proactive domain intelligence is no longer an optional add-on but a fundamental requirement for comprehensive third-party risk management. It provides a deeper, more accurate view of your partners’ digital health than a simple questionnaire ever could.

Don't wait for a third-party vulnerability to become your subsequent breach. Contact us to see how you can use ThreatNG to gain a comprehensive, continuous view of your partners' digital presence and protect your supply chain from evolving threats.