Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)Incident ManagementMedium
A CISO is reviewing the organization's business continuity plan (BCP) and identifies a critical business process that relies on a single, highly specialized vendor for a key component. The CISO is concerned about the potential impact if this vendor experiences a disruption. Which of the following strategies would MOST effectively mitigate this single point of failure in the BCP?
- ADiversifying the supply chain by identifying and onboarding alternative vendors.
- BDeveloping a detailed incident response plan specifically for vendor outages.
- CIncreasing the inventory of the key component from the current vendor.
- DImplementing a hot site with the current vendor to replicate services.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Diversifying the supply chain by identifying and onboarding alternative vendors.
Diversifying the supply chain by having alternative vendors directly addresses the single point of failure by reducing reliance on one source. This provides resilience if the primary vendor experiences a disruption.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. An incident response plan is reactive; while important, it doesn't prevent the single point of failure from causing an incident.
- C. Increasing inventory only provides a temporary buffer and does not address the long-term risk of the single vendor's potential inability to supply.
- D. A hot site with the *current* vendor still relies on that single vendor, not mitigating the risk of the vendor itself failing.
Supply Chain Diversification
The strategy of sourcing critical components or services from multiple vendors to reduce reliance on a single supplier and mitigate risks associated with vendor failure.
- Reduces single points of failure.
- Enhances resilience against vendor disruptions.
- Requires careful management of multiple vendor relationships.
Memory trick: Don't put all your supply eggs in one vendor basket.