Enhancing Vendor Risk Management with Generative AI: How ClearOPS Uses RAG and OSINT for Streamlined Due Diligence

Let's face it, regulations are challenging organizations to step up their process for engaging new vendors and conducting reasonably appropriate due diligence. ClearOPS has spent years in this space listening to organizations and their pain points and has discovered how to leverage Generative AI (GAI), coupled with our public data research arm, often referred to as OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), to offer an innovative solution for organizations. The integration of RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) into ClearOPS's platform represents a significant leap forward in enhancing vendor cyber risk management. This blog post delves into the benefits of utilizing RAG within the ClearOPS platform, highlighting how it empowers organizations to streamline their vendor assessment workflows and foster stronger, more secure business relationships.

Efficiency in Vendor Assessments

RAG starts with data sources. Before this technology, structured data was a key component of efficiency. Now, with RAG, you can select one or many sources to instruct the response given by an LLM (large language model) making it an informed response. For ClearOPS's users that means uploading a vast array of data sources, including customer policies, reports, past questionnaires, assessments, and extensive public data, and using those data sources to generate accurate, contextually relevant responses to security questionnaires and RFPs. For vendors, this approach ensures that assessments are completed more swiftly and more comprehensively.

Recently, we turned this around and offered organizations with vendors to send them due diligence questionnaires through the platform. The benefit here is that an organization can use the vendor's sources, such as evidence and audit reports, to inform its analysis of the vendor's responses to due diligence assessments. With this new functionality, organizations can build truly efficient processes for evaluating their vendors.

Streamlined Cross-Functional Collaboration

ClearOPS distinguishes itself through its cross-functional workspace, enabling seamless collaboration across different teams within an organization. The adoption of RAG further amplifies this benefit by allowing for the efficient synthesis of information from various internal and external sources. This ensures that all stakeholders, from information security managers to sales teams, can access and contribute to the due diligence process, fostering a holistic approach to vendor risk management.

Turning this around once again, our flexible approval process enables any and all team members to indicate if they have approved a vendor. This enables organizations to keep track of risks identified by team members and track whether a vendor needs more frequent reviews.

Empowering Businesses to Scale

For organizations looking to scale their vendor management, the efficiency afforded by RAG within the ClearOPS platform is invaluable. The platform's ability to automate and expedite the due diligence process allows businesses to assess a larger volume of vendors within shorter timeframes. Most organizations struggle to begin with vendor cyber risk due diligence because it can seem overwhelming and complex. ClearOPS has simplified this process down to what is critical: sending requests for information from the vendor, enabling teams with the power of information and approval-tracking and keeping a system of record. We've spent years figuring out this space so others don't have to start from scratch.

Case Study: A Testament to Success

A compelling testament to the benefits of using new Generative AI techniques in vendor cyber risk management comes from a large organization with thousands of vendors. With our OSINT domain based information, they quickly adopted our recommended process of reviewing vendor's OSINT reports as the first step in managing vendors. By quickly assessing a vendor and assigning it a risk profile, the deeper due diligence required for higher risk vendors was identified and started all in a few days. They now have an auditable record of conducting due diligence on every single vendor and their teams are seamlessly working together.

Conclusion

The integration of RAG into ClearOPS's innovative platform offers a forward-thinking solution to the complex challenges of vendor cyber risk management and due diligence. By harnessing the power of Generative AI and OSINT domain research, ClearOPS enables organizations to achieve greater efficiency, accuracy, and scalability in their vendor assessment processes. As organizations continue to navigate the complexities of cybersecurity and data privacy, ClearOPS stands out as an essential tool for fostering secure and successful vendor relationships.