Whistic survey data shows that 77% of security breaches and incidents that took place over the last three years were the result of a third-party vulnerability. Given the growing dependence on vendors for business-critical functions, this poses a massive challenge—especially for companies that still utilize a more manual, labor-intensive approach to third-party risk management (TPRM).

Risk rating technology and services provide continuous, data-driven insights and visibility into the third-party threat landscape, allowing businesses to automate the identification, monitoring, and prioritization of risk across expanding vendor ecosystems. When combined with a robust system of record for vendor documentation and an automated assessment platform, risk rating services can accelerate and modernize your TPRM approach.

Today, we’re taking a look at how risk ratings work, why they matter for your business, and how you can use them to elevate your approach to third-party risk.

Growing Vendor Complexity: Challenges for TPRM

Before we dive into risk ratings, it’s important to understand the context facing third-party risk teams right now. This will be helpful in identifying the role ratings services play in improving risk outcomes.

In our 2025 TPRM impact survey, Whistic found that the average mid-to-large size company (at least 500 employees) works with 286 vendors. We also learned that the average TPRM team has more hours of assessment work on their plate each month than there are actual hours in each month. In other words, there’s a time-and-resource gap that can lead to vendor risks, such as:

Cybersecurity vulnerabilities
Data privacy concerns
Regulatory non-compliance
Operational disruption

But it’s not just as simple as “More vendors, more problems.” These business risks are as much about the complexity of third-party risk management as they are about volume. The actual process of assessing, monitoring, and remediating risk among your vendor inventory can actually expose you to these risks, as well.

Why traditional TPRM methods fall short

We can cut right to the chase on this one: historically, TPRM assessments have relied solely on manual questionnaires—and all the back and forth, management, emailing, and waiting around that entails.

But they also only provide a snapshot of risk, rather than a real-time view. When combined with the resource-intensive manual steps, the traditional TPRM process can introduce some major challenges, including:

Lack of visibility into current threats
Inability to scale across hundreds of vendors
Delays in onboarding or utilizing vendor services due to lengthy assessments
Difficulty prioritizing risk remediation efforts

How risk rating services help

Risk rating platforms or services are third-party tools that collect, analyze, and score data about a vendor's cybersecurity posture in real time using a combination of public, proprietary, and behavioral data to continuously monitor the larger vendor ecosystem.

This helps expand the efficacy of TPRM assessments and liberate teams from the chokepoint of the questionnaire by providing:

External visibility into vendor security controls
Continuous monitoring of emerging risks
Risk prioritization based on severity and context
Actionable insights for both internal teams and vendors

These platforms are especially valuable for large organizations managing hundreds—or even thousands—of third parties. They provide a scalable way to maintain oversight and allocate resources effectively.

Best Practices for Risk Rating Adoption

Risk ratings provide real-time insights and offer another externally validated data source for assessing vendor risk. A 2024 Forrester research study done in conjunction with RiskRecon by Mastercard also found that risk rating services are a common fixture of mature TPRM programs. In the study:

70% of TPRM leaders with advanced programs report using rating services
They are also 2.5 times more likely to report feeling “very confident” in their ability to identify and mitigate real-time risks compared to less mature programs without risk ratings.
The same group also reports feeling five times more likely to say their platform is well-integrated with business decision making. This aligns with Whistic survey data, too: 55% of the companies we surveyed said their risk rating servie was "fully integrated".

In short, using risk rating platforms doesn’t just make life easier for the TPRM team—it also enables stronger alignment with broader business objectives, including compliance, resilience, and brand protection.

So, how do you choose and implement a risk rating platform that’s the best fit for your business?

How to Select and Utilize the Right Risk Rating Platform

Not all risk rating tools are created equally…but neither is your business just like every other. It’s important to find a solution that fits your current organizational needs, can be implemented and generate value quickly, and can scale as your company grows or changes. Here are some key features to look for when evaluating risk-rating vendors:

1. Data accuracy and transparency
Not all “data” is created equally, either. The value of your program relies on the quality of the data available; it’s important to have the right data, not just more data. Look for solutions that offer:

Independently validated methodologies to reduce the impact of bias
Transparent scoring models that allow you to understand conclusions
A strong track record of accurate risk detection that can be shared and reported on

2. Customization and adaptability
Your organization’s risk appetite and business priorities are unique. But they are also liable to change as you face pressures from competitors, new technologies, or regulatory shifts. You need a risk rating solution attuned to your needs now and flexible enough for your future, so look for one that allows you to:

Tailor scoring criteria
Flag specific risk types or geographies
Adjust thresholds for alerting or taking an action

3. Automation and integrations
Risk ratings should accelerate the vendor assessment and risk remediation processes, not hinder them. That means automation and a seamless fit with other critical business systems is a must. Look for these features in your risk rating tools:

APIs for integrating with your existing GRC or TPRM platforms
Automated alerts and escalation plans
Built in dashboards and reporting for communicating with stakeholders

[h2]Best Practices for Implementing Risk Rating Services

Once you’ve selected a platform, success depends on how well it’s integrated into your overall TPRM program. Here are some practical tips to ensure a smooth rollout and long-term ROI:

Start with high-risk vendors. Using your risk-ranking criteria and organizing your vendors into tiers allows you to identify those that pose the greatest risk if compromised. Begin implementing your risk rating platform with vendors that handle sensitive data, have access to critical systems, are essential to business operations, or are in regulated sectors.
Use ratings to guide prioritization. Your platform can help you triage vendor assessments and remediation efforts by focusing your limited resources on the most critical findings.
Combine ratings with human context. Human judgement and contextual knowledge don’t go out the window with risk ratings. Instead, leverage the ratings as a boost to your institutional understanding to make faster, richer decisions.
Foster collaboration with vendors (not surveillance). In our recent Whistic survey, 99% of respondents said that vendor experience is very important. Don’t use ratings as a cudgel against your vendors; instead, view them as a tool for shared improvement. Give your vendors visibility into rating reports as a means to strengthen the relationship and improve that critical vendor experience.
Provide training and support. Ensure your InfoSec, Procurement, and Compliance teams know how to use and interpret your risk ratings with consistent training. This will improve efficiency and outcomes when action is necessary.

Combining risk ratings with TPRM assessments

Employing risk rating services can improve the efficiency and accuracy of your risk monitoring, and it can also help with prioritization and alignment around risk management. But they become a force multiplier when integrated into your TPRM assessment workflows.

We discussed earlier the limitations of the questionnaire-only approach to vendor security assessments, but another way to think about it is that questionnaires reduce all vendor data to a single source. But we all know from our own organizations that security evidence exists in myriad documents and audits, all in various systems or formats. Modern TPRM is about utilizing all those data sources without the manual process of forcing them into a questionnaire.

Risk ratings are another important source of vendor security data that can be incorporated into the TPRM process to expand your insight and eliminate bottlenecks in the assessment process. When you’ve selected and implemented your rating service, make sure you have the following elements in place to couple them with your TPRM approach:

1. Vendor inventory. A vendor inventory is a centralized repository for all information about your entire vendor catalog. This includes contract info, vendor contacts, SLEs, and any other documentation associated with the vendor. This kind of centralization makes risk ranking and risk tiers easier and more effective.

2. Document repository. Make sure you are collecting the various data sources for vendor security in a single location. This includes things like audit reports like SOC 2s, shared or public trust centers, or previously completed questionnaires. This makes it possible to take advantage of modern TPRM solutions that can access multiple data types, and it’s a place your risk rating intelligence can feed into, as well.

3. AI-first TPRM solution. AI is the key to modernizing TPRM processes. AI makes it possible to extract analysis from multiple data sources in minutes—rather than waiting weeks or months for the data to come to you from the manual effort of your vendors or your team. With the right AI solution, you can source security insights from your document repository, allowing you to:

Start an assessment immediately with the information you have
Reduce the manual burden on your vendors or external teams
Combine richer assessments with real-time risk rating insights for a comprehensive view of risk

Whistic + RiskRecon Provide a 360-Degree View of Risk

When you combine the automated-assessment power of modern, AI-first TPRM with real-time insight from a trusted risk rating service, you have all the risk-management power you need at your fingertips—in a fraction of the time and resources as the traditional, manual approach.

Whistic partners with RiskRecon by Mastercard to provide powerful continuous monitoring and the fastest, richest vendor risk assessments possible, making it easier for you to identify risk, monitor threats, and prioritize the right remediation efforts to maximize the impact of limited time and resources.

The Whistic Platform is the industry’s only AI-first TPRM solution. Instead of a clunky add-on or widget for an existing product, Whistic is built from the ground up with AI integrated into your existing workflows. Our suite of AI capabilities, called Assessment Copilot, automates the assessment process in three key ways:

Vendor summary allows you to perform an automated assessment with the full spectrum of vendor security data. Built on trust, Vendor Summary provides full context, document citations, and confidence scores for every automated response—giving you full visibility and control.
SOC 2 summaries allow you to distill hundred-page SOC 2 audit reports down to five pages of insight catered specifically to your controls.
Vendor Insights makes it possible to query your entire vendor inventory at the same time, surfacing global insights that may be necessary in the event of a potential third-party vulnerability or a change to your security posture.

Whistic AI is the most powerful way to get the most out of your risk rating service and accelerate your assessment process, delivering faster value, better vendor experiences, and better risk outcomes. The only way to see the Whistic difference is to experience it for yourself. Schedule some time with our team of experts and we’ll show you what the combined power of AI-first TPRM and RiskRecon can do for you.