Top Automations for Risk Reviews with BlinkOps + SecurityScorecard

Third-party risk management is an important but time-consuming part of cybersecurity. In fact, nearly half of companies still rely on spreadsheets to track vendor risks, even though 41% experienced a serious third-party breach in the past year. Manual reviews and scattered tools make it hard to keep up. This is where automating your vendor risk program can be a game-changer.

BlinkOps can integrate with SecurityScorecard’s vendor security ratings to streamline your third-party risk reviews. By automatically pulling in up-to-date SecurityScorecard ratings, mapping those ratings to your internal risk policies, and triggering review workflows, you can stay on top of vendor risks with minimal effort. The result is a proactive, continuous approach to vendor security that saves time and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

Below are five smart automations you can implement with BlinkOps and SecurityScorecard.

Each one covers a practical use case with a step-by-step workflow and the immediate benefits it brings to your risk and security teams. From catching a dropping vendor score to kickstarting periodic reviews, these automations make third-party risk management easier and more effective.

1. Automated Vendor Onboarding Security Check

When your organization is considering a new vendor, performing a security check is essential before onboarding them. Typically, this involves reviewing questionnaires or manually looking up the vendor’s SecurityScorecard rating. That manual process can be slow and might be overlooked during a busy procurement cycle. An automated onboarding security check ensures every new vendor is vetted for cyber risk as soon as they enter the pipeline. (Industry best practices even recommend referencing vendor security ratings during evaluation.)

This workflow uses BlinkOps to instantly pull the vendor’s SecurityScorecard rating and act on it according to your policy.

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. The process kicks off whenever a new vendor is added to your vendor list or procurement system (for example, when procurement enters a vendor in ServiceNow).
2. BlinkOps automatically calls the SecurityScorecard API to retrieve the vendor’s latest security rating (an “outside-in” cyber risk score, like a credit score for the vendor’s security).
3. BlinkOps compares the vendor’s score against your internal policy thresholds. For instance, if your policy says vendors must have a SecurityScorecard score of 80 or above (or a letter grade of B or better), BlinkOps checks if the vendor meets this criterion.
4. If the vendor’s score is above the acceptable threshold, BlinkOps can mark the vendor as preliminarily approved from a security standpoint – perhaps logging the score in a ServiceNow record and posting a Slack message to the procurement team that “Vendor XYZ passed the security health check with a score of 85.” If the score is below your threshold, BlinkOps automatically creates a ServiceNow ticket (or risk assessment task) for a deeper review.

Immediate Value

By automating the onboarding check, you enforce security due diligence for every new vendor without slowing down procurement. The team gets immediate insight into a vendor’s cyber posture and can address any red flags early. This saves time (no more manual score lookups) and helps prevent bringing on a vendor with unacceptable risk. It’s a quick “go/no-go” test that aligns vendor selection with your security standards from the start.

2. Continuous Vendor Score Monitoring & Alerting

Onboarding is just the beginning – a vendor’s security posture can change over time. That’s why continuous monitoring after onboarding is so important. Rather than manually checking each vendor’s SecurityScorecard profile for changes (which is impractical with dozens of vendors), BlinkOps can do it for you and immediately alert you to any concerning drops in scores. This automation keeps a constant watch on all your third parties and flags issues before they turn into incidents. For example, if a vendor’s score suddenly falls below your acceptable threshold, you will know right away and can respond.

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. BlinkOps runs this monitoring workflow on a schedule – say daily or weekly. You set the frequency depending on how quickly you want to catch changes.
2. The workflow uses SecurityScorecard’s API to pull the current security rating for each vendor in your portfolio. This can include the overall score (0-100 or letter grade) and even sub-scores or issue counts if needed.
3. BlinkOps compares the latest scores to your defined risk thresholds and/or the last known scores. For example, you might flag any vendor score that drops below 70, or any vendor that falls by more than 5 points since the last check. This comparison logic is configured as per your risk appetite.
4. If any vendor’s score crosses the danger threshold or shows a large decline, BlinkOps springs into action. It creates a ServiceNow incident or risk ticket documenting the situation – e.g. “Vendor ABC’s security rating dropped from 82 to 75, falling below the 80 threshold.” The ticket can be assigned to the vendor’s risk owner or the security team for investigation. At the same time, BlinkOps sends an immediate Slack alert to the appropriate channel.

Immediate Value

With this continuous monitoring in place, your team gets proactive alerts about vendor security issues instead of finding out too late. No one has to manually watch the scores – BlinkOps does it tirelessly. When a vendor’s cyber health worsens, the right people know immediately and can kick off a remediation or review process. This reduces the likelihood of being caught off-guard by a vendor breach, since you’re continuously kept in the loop on your suppliers’ security posture. In short, it’s an early-warning system for third-party risk, helping you tackle problems before they escalate.

3. Automated Risk Tiering and Policy Enforcement

Not all vendors carry the same level of risk. Your organization might classify vendors into tiers – for example, Tier 1 (high risk/critical vendors), Tier 2 (medium risk), Tier 3 (low risk) – based on factors like data access and security posture. These tiers determine how much scrutiny and oversight each vendor gets (high-risk vendors might require more frequent reviews and stricter controls).

However, manually maintaining these classifications can be cumbersome. What if a medium-risk vendor’s security rating drops, and it should now be treated as high risk? 

If nobody notices promptly, that vendor might not get the extra oversight it needs. BlinkOps can automate the mapping of SecurityScorecard ratings to your internal risk tiers and enforce the corresponding policies in real time. This ensures your vendor risk categorization is always up-to-date and that your team’s response (like review frequency or required actions) automatically adjusts to any changes.

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Schedule this workflow to run periodically (e.g. once a month or whenever new ratings come out). It can also be triggered on-demand, say after adding a batch of new vendors or upon a major security incident that warrants rechecking everyone.
2. BlinkOps fetches the current SecurityScorecard score for each vendor in your inventory. This provides an objective, uniform measure of each vendor’s security posture at the current time.
3. For each vendor, BlinkOps applies your predefined tiering logic. For instance: score ≥ 90 = Tier 3 (Low Risk); 75–89 = Tier 2 (Moderate Risk); < 75 = Tier 1 (High Risk). (Your policy might also consider the vendor’s inherent criticality, but the automation can incorporate multiple criteria.) Essentially, the workflow translates the raw rating into the risk tier label that your governance program uses.
4. If a vendor’s tier has changed since the last assessment, BlinkOps updates the vendor’s record in your system of record (like updating a field in ServiceNow VRM or a GRC platform). For example, if Vendor XYZ’s score fell from 78 to 72, the automation would change their tier from Tier 2 to Tier 1 in the record.
5. With the tier updated, BlinkOps can initiate any new workflows required for that tier. In our example, Vendor XYZ moving to Tier 1 might trigger a formal risk review process. The automation could create a ServiceNow task for a security assessment of that vendor, schedule a follow-up meeting, or require sign-off from a senior risk manager. Conversely, if a vendor’s score improves and it moves to a lower-risk tier, the system might scale down the oversight (though usually you’d still keep an eye on them). BlinkOps can also send a Slack notification or email to the vendor management team listing any vendors that changed tier.

Immediate Value

By automatically mapping scores to risk tiers, you enforce your vendor risk policies 24/7. High-risk vendors get flagged and handled appropriately without any lag, and low-risk vendors are accurately categorized. This consistency helps ensure that no vendor is under- or over-managed relative to their risk. Your team doesn’t have to manually crunch scores or update spreadsheets; BlinkOps keeps the risk profile of each third party current. The immediate benefit is stronger compliance and governance – you can be confident that your internal rules (like “all Tier 1 vendors must be reviewed quarterly”) are always being applied to the right vendors at the right time.

4. Scheduled Vendor Security Reassessment Workflows

Many organizations require periodic security reviews of third parties – for example, an annual review of high-risk vendors or a review before contract renewal. Staying on top of these schedules can be difficult if done manually (it’s easy to lose track of dates or miss a review in a busy quarter). This automation ensures that vendor security reviews are initiated on a regular schedule, with SecurityScorecard data included to make the process efficient.

Essentially, BlinkOps acts as your calendar watchdog and orchestrator: when it’s time for a vendor’s check-up, it initiates the workflow, notifies the right people, and populates the task with relevant information. This keeps your third-party risk management process continuously active and consistent.

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Set BlinkOps to trigger this workflow at a defined interval. For example, the first day of each quarter, or a custom schedule such as 90 days before each vendor’s contract renewal date. You might also maintain metadata (like last review date per vendor) and have BlinkOps run daily to catch any vendor that hits its review due date.
2. BlinkOps queries your vendor repository (could be ServiceNow, a database, or even a spreadsheet) to find which vendors need a security review this cycle. For instance, perhaps all Tier 1 (high risk) vendors get quarterly reviews, Tier 2 semi-annually, and Tier 3 annually. The automation pulls that list based on last review timestamps or tier-based rules.
3. For each vendor slated for review, BlinkOps automatically fetches the latest SecurityScorecard rating and key details (such as notable changes since the last review, or any current high-risk factors on their scorecard). This gives the reviewers a head start with up-to-date information. If you have an internal questionnaire or assessment form, BlinkOps could even attach the vendor’s score report to it.
4. The workflow then creates a new “Vendor Risk Reassessment” ticket or task in ServiceNow (or your GRC tool) for each vendor. The task description includes the vendor’s current SecurityScorecard score, perhaps a brief summary like “Vendor ABC – Current Score 78 (C); down from 82 last quarter” and instructions or a checklist for the reviewer to follow. The task is assigned to the responsible risk analyst or vendor owner.
5. BlinkOps sends out notifications to ensure people know the reviews have started. For example, a Slack message to the security team: “It’s that time again – quarterly security reviews initiated for 5 vendors: [list of names]. Check ServiceNow for your assigned reviews.” You could also have BlinkOps send an email to each vendor owner with a link to the ServiceNow ticket. If any vendor is critical, you might additionally alert management that “Vendor X’s annual security review is in progress.”

Immediate Value

By automating the periodic review cycle, you ensure no vendor goes unreviewed according to your policy. The process runs like clockwork – you won’t forget to re-assess that critical supplier because BlinkOps will remind you and even do the initial legwork of data gathering. Reviewers get everything they need handed to them (current scores, links, tasks created), so they spend less time on prep and more on analysis.

This leads to faster completion of reviews and a stronger security posture, since any issues discovered during these scheduled check-ups can be addressed promptly.

Take Your Next Steps With BlinkOps

Third-party risk management doesn’t have to be a labor-intensive, check-the-box exercise. By combining BlinkOps with SecurityScorecard, you can achieve a continuous and automated vendor risk program that is both thorough and agile. The automations above demonstrate how routine tasks – from onboarding checks to ongoing monitoring and periodic reviews – can be handled by workflows that run in the background (or on demand), freeing up your team to focus on decision-making rather than data gathering. 

With SecurityScorecard’s real-time ratings feeding into BlinkOps workflows, your risk and security teams gain instant visibility into vendor security health and can respond immediately when something changes. Whether it’s creating a ServiceNow ticket at the first sign of trouble or pinging a Slack channel with a heads-up, these automated actions ensure you’re never left in the dark about your supply chain’s security.

Schedule a demo with BlinkOps and experience how automation can transform your security workflows: https://go.blinkops.com/get-started/.