Third-Party Vendors: Your Greatest Ally… and Potentially Your Biggest Ransomware Risk

Third-party vendors have become essential partners for many businesses, but they also pose significant ransomware risks.

You don’t have to be directly hacked to fall victim to ransomware. More often, attackers target the vulnerable spots: your third-party vendors and SaaS providers, which include managed service providers, law firms, accountants, payroll processors, and IT suppliers.

When one of these vendors is compromised, the repercussions can be severe—sometimes even more damaging than if your own systems were attacked.

The past year has provided several alarming reminders of this vulnerability:

The Change Healthcare Attack: Disrupted billing and prescriptions for thousands of hospitals and pharmacies across the U.S. due to a single compromised vendor.

The CDK Global Incident: Caused auto dealerships throughout North America to face nearly two weeks of disrupted sales and service operations.

Financial Breaches: Recent incidents involving banks, credit unions, and insurance companies originated from vulnerabilities in core-processing or document-management partners.

The trend is clear: attackers recognize that third parties often have privileged access, weaker defenses, and less oversight. A single successful encryption event can have a cascading effect on numerous downstream customers.

For your primary organization, the vendor is now part of your attack surface—whether you want it to be or not.

A Critical Check: Are You Outsourcing Trust or Risk?

If you are a customer of third-party vendors, it is time to ask hard questions:

Do your critical third parties have real-time ransomware encryption protection (not just backups and EDR)?

• Can they demonstrate that they stop encryption on the very first file—not after thousands have already been locked?

• Do your contracts and ongoing assessments actually require and verify this level of protection?

• Do you have the right to audit their ransomware defenses on an annual basis?

• If you find yourself answering “I’m not sure” to any of these questions, you are outsourcing trust and bringing in risk.

For Vendors: Ransomware Prevention is Essential Survival

For vendors and MSPs, it's crucial to recognize that ransomware protection is not just an optional add-on; it's a fundamental responsibility to your customers and essential for your business's survival.

When an attack occurs, your customers face immediate operational disruptions and damage to their reputation.

Many may choose to leave as soon as the incident becomes public, some might pursue legal action, and regulators could impose fines on both parties.

Investing in effective, prevention-focused ransomware technology—solutions that can detect and halt encryption within seconds—is no longer merely a budget item. It's a necessary expense for maintaining your business and preserving your customers' trust.

What Both Sides Should Do

For Customers of Third-Party Providers

• Include clear ransomware prevention clauses in all new and renewed contracts.

• Request annual proof of real-time encryption protection (not just policies).

• Conduct tabletop exercises that simulate vendor breach scenarios.

• Insist on transparency during incidents.

  
  

For Third-Party Providers

• Implement solutions that prevent encryption at the first sign of trouble—not after damage has occurred.

• Release a public statement on your ransomware resilience.

• Provide customers with real-time visibility or confirmations of your protective measures.

• Make prevention a key selling point—your customers are already inquiring about it.

The New Reality

Simply saying “We trust our vendors” will no longer suffice as a defense strategy.

The risk of third-party ransomware is now a topic of discussion at the board level for every organization.

Stop relying on the hope that your partners are secure. Start verifying their protection—and if you are the partner, begin demonstrating it.

Because the next headline won’t read “Vendor X was attacked.” It will say “Thousands of banks/customers/patients paralyzed after vendor breach.”

Don’t let your organization be part of that headline.

Stay alert.