Third-party applications, browsers and plugins have become the attack vector of choice for the modern cyber criminal. Computing surveyed over 200 UK business decision makers to understand how they perceived the risks that they faced from third-party applications.

We set out to understand how they were managing and mitigating the challenges to employee productivity, compliance and information security.

This paper features a detailed discussion of the survey findings alongside analysis of how third-party applications have come to pose such a threat. The paper discusses why vulnerabilities for which remediation is available are so widespread and why business organisations are often slow to deploy up-to-date versions of popular third-party applications and security patches.

The paper concludes with a discussion of why only a holistic approach to endpoint security management can empower organisations to realise the benefits of third-party applications whilst mitigating the risks that they can present.