Infrastructure Access Vendor Risk Management

It came from a vendor account with elevated infrastructure access. One click later, you’re staring at a problem that could cripple production.

Infrastructure Access Vendor Risk Management is the discipline of controlling, monitoring, and minimizing risks from third-party access to your systems. It is no longer optional. Vendors need access to perform their work, but that access can also create the widest attack surface in your environment.

The first step is visibility. You cannot manage what you cannot see. Maintain a live inventory of all vendor accounts, what systems they can touch, and what permissions they have. This list must be accurate to the hour, not the month. Every stale credential is a potential exploit.

Next, enforce least privilege infrastructure access. A vendor should have no more permissions than are required for their immediate task. Reduce the blast radius of any breach by segmenting networks and isolating high-value assets. Combine this with time-bound access so credentials expire automatically when work is done.

Strong authentication is another non‑negotiable. Require multi-factor authentication on all vendor logins. Block legacy and insecure protocols. Monitor sessions in real time and record access for audit.

Risk management also means constant review. Audit vendor actions against change requests. Terminate unused accounts promptly. Use automated tools to flag anomalies like logins from new locations or sudden spikes in privileged commands.

Treat legal and compliance requirements as part of the same operational fabric. Ensure vendor contracts define access policies, security controls, and incident response obligations. Keep this enforceable with technical controls, not only policy documents.

Infrastructure Access Vendor Risk Management is not just about locking doors. It’s about creating a system where every vendor action is intentional, authorized, and visible. That’s how you limit exposure while keeping work moving.

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