Test Data & Cyber Security: Data Breaches

60 percent of breaches are linked to a third party.  Why are you giving them access to your data when you don't need too?
Third-party contractors are the biggest source of security incidents outside of a company’s employees:

• Approximately 66% of companies extensively or significantly rely on third-party vendors.  
• Less than 17% of organizations felt their current systems effectively managed third-party risk.
• 81% of organizations have seen an increase in third-party vendors in the past two years.
• 57% of organizations don't have an inventory of all 3rd parties.
• On average, 181 vendors are granted access to a company’s network in a given week.

2019 was a huge year for cyber breaches, especially third-party cyber breaches (third-party breaches account for over half of all data breaches in the US, according to the Ponemon Institute).  Plus, a third-party breach costs twice what a normal breach cost. 
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Why are commercial companies and government agencies giving access to their private and confidential data to third parties when there exist viable technology alternatives to this practice and they don't need too?