Sapphire launches AI-powered third-party risk management service
Cybersecurity MSP partners with Swiss startup Agnostic Intelligence for supply chain assurance
Cybersecurity MSP Sapphire is launching new third-party risk management services using technology from Swiss startup Agnostic Intelligence.
This is an AI-driven platform that optimises risk scoring against suppliers' cyber security maturity through this partnership.
The Agnostic Intelligence platform will allow Sapphire to provide clients with a 360-degree risk view and the ability to centralise, automate and personalise the process to the needs of our clients.
Sapphire CEO Ian Thomas (pictured) tells CRN: "One of the key focuses in the latest regulations, as well as several other planned regulations, is third-party risk management and supply chain assurance.
"It's clear that somewhere between half and two-thirds of cyberattacks originate in the supply chain. Many companies are getting better at cybersecurity resilience and monitoring their own assets to protect their services. However, they have deep integration with numerous suppliers, creating potential weaknesses.
"To illustrate, in the financial services industry, insurance companies have thousands of independent financial advisors hooked into their systems for quoting.
"If those suppliers are not secure themselves, they create vulnerabilities in the insurance company's security posture."
Thomas explains that securing the supply chain is increasingly important for two main reasons:
- Unsecured suppliers expose weaknesses in security posture
- If critical suppliers are at risk of ransomware, it can halt business operations if they're reliant on them
"Conducting supply chain due diligence and ensuring critical suppliers meet minimum cybersecurity standards is becoming crucial," he says.
Dirk Fisseler, CEO of Agnostic Intelligence adds: "We have been in the market for two years as one of the very successful cybersecurity startups. As our strategy is not limited to two regions, we've been looking for a capable partner in the UK.
"Our product is very innovative, there are emerging regulatory issues around supply chain risk that require local expertise. Our competitive advantage is that we don't gather data in Switzerland - it's a SaaS model in the Microsoft Azure environment, allowing easy datacentre adaptation per region.
"We have a fully automated version that took eight years to develop, which is winning us many customers and giving us a boost across the continent.
"For the UK market, Sapphire is truly a strategic partnership for us, not just a typical one.
"Their deep cybersecurity expertise was very important for us to understand in-depth, not just at a high level. Many of our customers have stringent security requirements, and supply chain risk is becoming increasingly important."
Sapphire's managed third-party risk management service is designed to remove the overheads for clients to obtain information on third-party risk data and vulnerabilities themselves.
Sapphire will be the sole distributor of the Agnostic Intelligence platform in the UK.