COMMENTARY: IT sprawl sounds like an IT problem, but it is really a security problem. Every time a team adds a new SaaS app, signs a new vendor, or brings in a new supplier, the company gets another place where risk can hide. Most of the time, nobody is trying to be careless. People are just trying to move faster and get work done. But that creates a big visibility problem. Who has access? Where is the data going? Which vendor is connected to what? If security teams cannot answer those questions, attackers may find the gaps first.
For years, CIOs were expected to build impenetrable digital fortresses, with robust firewalls, sophisticated endpoint detection, and strict identity management to protect their organization’s perimeter. Still, a massive gap remains open.
The global economy demands speed and agility, and organizations have responded to the pressure with ballooning SaaS investments.
Recent data shows that the average enterprise operates a startling 2,191 applications. But the more tools we use to drive efficiency, the more vulnerable we become. IT sprawl creates a rising security threat in which attackers can exploit unmonitored entry points to access sensitive information. In the race to innovate, we have traded visibility for velocity, leading to a higher level of third-party risk that most governance models are not equipped to handle.
Modern supply chains are fragmented
Software supply chains have undergone tremendous growth in recent years. While the access to more useful programs is a boon for innovators under pressure, it creates additional challenges for CIOs and their teams.
Onboarding a high volume of suppliers and vendors is only the tip of the iceberg. Every new entity in the ecosystem not only introduces new potential risks, but heightens existing vulnerabilities, from fragmented data, to siloed operations that diminish already hazy visibility. In most organizations, supplier information is scattered across ERPs, finance platforms, and regional systems. When marketing signs a new analytics partner or finance adopts a specialized billing tool, they aren't just adding a line item to the budget, but opening a new gateway into the corporate ecosystem.
Third-Party risk is the new front line
Last year,
30% of supply chain breaches were linked to third-party involvement, twice as much as in the previous year. A third-party provider often holds the keys to sensitive access credentials, customer PII, intellectual property, or non-public financial data. For threat actors, these third-party vendors are high-value targets. The smaller the supplier, the fewer resources they may have to spend on best practice cybersecurity. If a small supplier with limited security resources is breached, the risk can ripple upward and impact the entire enterprise.
Tackling inconsistency is a crucial first step. Variations in screening across regions and business units create, it creates blind spots in sanctions, financial, and regulatory checks – precisely where third-party risk is most likely to enter the organization. These discrepancies create errors early on in onboarding and weaken downstream risk and compliance assessments. Most supplier risks surface after activation because the initial screening was a "check-the-box" exercise rather than a deep dive into the vendor’s security.
When third-party risk is no longer static, risk management strategies must be designed to keep the pace. A vendor that was secure last month might be vulnerable in the next six due to a new software exploit, a change in their own sub-processors, or a shift in their infrastructure. The traditional approach of manual spreadsheets and point-in-time questionnaires during onboarding is therefore obsolete.
The Role of AI
While businesses are embracing AI to improve their processes and catalyze innovation, cybercriminals are adopting it to improve their success rates. Last year alone, AI-enabled bad actors increased attacks by
89%, using machine learning to probe for system weaknesses at scale.
IT sprawl produces a visibility crisis that AI-enabled attackers will seize in an instant. With so many applications operating at once, a human security team can’t manually monitor for every entry point, but AI can. Threat actors use automated tools to identify the weakest link in a fragmented supply chain, turning IT sprawl into a playground for attackers. The more unmonitored shadow SaaS applications an organization or supplier has, the more unmapped surface area AI has to scan, test, and eventually penetrate.
Depending on the type and extent of the security breach, a breached supplier could face anything from
financial and reputational damage to regulatory risk and operational disruption. The longer an incident goes undetected, the more time threat actors have to scour the network, and the more it will cost to clean up and recover from.
Continuous Monitoring as the Solution
IT sprawl has weakened our digital fortresses, but CIOs can reinforce them with continuous vulnerability monitoring and automated discovery. This means moving away from manual, siloed processes and embracing a data-centric approach that links security to the entire supplier lifecycle.
This transformation begins with automated vendor discovery. Because we cannot protect what we don't know exists, organizations must implement tools that identify "Shadow SaaS" and third-party relationships as they emerge, rather than waiting for an annual audit to reveal a new vulnerability. Once visibility is established, security must be baked into the transaction itself. By enforcing strict identity and compliance checks through payment-linked controls before a single dollar is paid, companies can create a more secure onboarding process that prevents risky actors from entering the system.
Ultimately, risk management must shift from an annual event to an hourly endeavor. By replacing manual processes with real-time visibility and continuous monitoring, we can close the gap that IT sprawl has left open. The goal for today's CIO is not to stop the adoption of new tools, but to ensure that every relationship is governed by a unified, automated, and continuous risk framework.
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