The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) today announced it has partnered with the Third Party Assurance Centre (TPAC), a business assurance initiative, formed to help minimise outsourcing risks. Other industry bodies partnering with TPAC include the Information Security Forum, Cloud Security Alliance, Common Assurance Maturity Model, and the Payment Card Industry board of advisers.
A recent whitepaper collectively produced by these industry bodies entitled, “Business Assurance for the 21st Century,” highlights that third parties managing data should be asked questions about the security systems they have in place and the standards they adhere to. TPAC aims to combat security risks faced by organisations that manage third-party suppliers by introducing transparency into the supply chain.
Raj Samani, founder of the Common Assurance Maturity Model (CAMM), and chief technology officer Europe, Middle East and Africa for security firm McAfee, commented: “Organisations should create contracts which outline the level of security that they expect from their third parties, whether data is being managed in the cloud or on-premise. This way, when organisations get tenders for business coming through, they are assured that third parties are transparent about risk levels. Transparency is heavily encouraged by CIF as are contracts. We are delighted they are coming on board with TPAC to advocate best practice across the wider IT sector.”
Andy Burton, chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum commented: “CIF fully supports the initiative of providing a third party assurance framework to help establish trust online, and we see this as complementary to the CIF Code of Practice which was launched in 2010 to engender best practice within the Cloud Service Provider market by requiring Certification against the inter-dependent pillars of Transparency, Accountability and Capability. Both the CIF Code of Practice and the Third Party Assurance initiative have a common aim of providing end users with a frame of reference to make informed decisions in their use of online services. To that end we are keen to work alongside our industry peers to see if we can help make this a reality.”
A website will shortly be launched for the initiative under the following url: www.the-third-party-assurance-centre.com.
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