How to Choose a Cybersecurity Vendor with 2026 Considerations
Listing a company and hiring them are two very different aspects; all companies claim to be secure, but true resilience is determined by the details of their execution. Here are the top three "must haves" when evaluating any of the firms on our registry:
- 1. ZTA or Zero Trust Architecture
Instead of simply asking whether or not they "do" security, ask them how they would address lateral movement within their organization. A true partner today should consider each user/device to be an unknown entity or potential threat until it is verified.
- 2. MTTR or Mean-Time-to-Recover on IR (Incident Response)
Companies like to use general numbers (e.g., “99% uptime,” etc.) as marketing fluff. Ask the company you are considering what their MTTR (mean time to recovery) is for breaches. If a breach occurs on Sunday, 3 a.m. — how long would it take for their team to respond? If a firm can not provide a definitive number for recovery time today, they will not be equipped to deal with 2026-type threats.
- 3. Supply Chain Security
In today's interconnected economy, the most significant risk to you is likely through your partner(s)’ partners. Ensure that any provider you are considering evaluates the security of their own Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) to reduce the likelihood of creating downstream vulnerabilities like those which crippled global networks in the past decade.