Today, organizations need outsourcing as their needs increase. With outsourcing becoming prominent in software development, purchasing information system assets, internet infrastructure, etc., the need for supplier information security auditing has emerged.

Supplier companies can now have privileged rights such as having the same physical access controls as the organization’s employees and establishing remote connections to the organization. For this reason, it has become necessary to analyze the issues to be considered in terms of information security when working with suppliers. A policy should be created for supplier relations and security should be stated. In addition, the supply chain system should be examined and evaluated for the effective use of security technologies and resources.

What is Supplier Security?

Supplier Security is the process that analyzes the risks arising from third-party companies that organizations that are dependent on external sources in operational and business management processes and minimizes these risks.

Organizations benefit from supply services for the products and services they need that are outside their areas of expertise. Therefore, while using supply services, organizations may share corporate and confidential data with their suppliers.

By taking into account the flow of information in supply services, it allows you to take the necessary security measures to ensure the security and confidentiality of your corporate data. It creates a secure structure and ensures that security measures are taken in supply chain processes and applications.

It ensures that institutions and organizations with external dependencies in operational and administrative processes minimize information security risks arising from 3rd parties from which they receive service.

In order to create a sustainable and reliable supply chain, it is of great importance to define the processes, assets, data and accesses operated by stakeholders under the corporate structure in an accurate and detailed manner, to identify security vulnerabilities, to determine solutions for these vulnerabilities, to ensure compliance with international standards regarding information security and supply chain management, and ultimately to prevent data, service, operation, labor, time, reputation and financial losses originating from the supplier network.

Why is Supplier Security Important?

Ensuring supplier security is a critical process in order to prevent damage to the reputation and reliability of organizations and to ensure that the confidential and private information of the organization is not disclosed. At the same time, ensuring supplier security is also made mandatory by some national and international regulatory requirements.

Within the scope of the Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK), data controllers must ensure that the data processors (suppliers) in question provide at least the level of security provided by them regarding personal data when receiving services. According to the second paragraph of Article 12 of the Law, data processors are also jointly responsible with the data controller for ensuring the security of personal data.

Similarly, at the national level, there are actions that institutions and organizations within the scope of the Presidency Digital Transformation Office Information and Communication Security Guide must take regarding supplier security in accordance with Article 3.5.3 Supplier Relations Security of the Guide.

One of the benefits of Supplier Security management is that it facilitates the identification of situations that exist or may arise in the supply chain of organizations and that pose a risk to the information security and reliability of the organization.

Benefits of Supplier Security

It increases the trust of organizations that provide products/services.
It provides an increase in customer satisfaction by meeting customer needs.
It ensures that security risks are correctly identified and necessary precautions are taken. It increases the holistic image of the organization.