Identity and Access Management (IAM) is no longer about guarding your own doors. It’s about every door connected to your systems, including the ones you don’t control. Third-party risk assessment now sits at the core of IAM because attackers use the weakest access point. If that point is a partner’s poorly managed account, your internal security controls won’t save you.
An IAM third-party risk assessment starts by mapping every identity that originates outside your organization. This includes cloud providers, contractors, SaaS platforms, and integrated APIs. Each external identity must be reviewed for authentication strength, role appropriateness, and lifecycle controls. Dormant partner accounts with stale permissions are goldmines for attackers.
Next, assess the vendor’s own identity governance. Do they enforce multi-factor authentication across all accounts? Is access scoped by least privilege? Can they revoke credentials instantly if an insider threat appears? These are not optional questions. Weak vendor identity practices are a direct attack surface on your systems.
Integrations should be evaluated for how they store, transmit, and log identity credentials. API tokens without expiration, service accounts without rotation, or unencrypted credential storage represent unacceptable risk. The assessment should expose these issues before they become breaches.