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Theprocurementfunction is directly responsible for vendor selection and contract management, including risk assessments of new or renewed vendor relationships. This ensures that third-party providers meet security, compliance, and performance requirements.

Software development and quality assurance focus on product creation and validation. Marketing manages branding and outreach. None of these directly involve evaluating external vendor risk.

Procurement integrates due diligence, contract clauses, and performance monitoring into enterprise risk management. This reduces exposure to third-party threats and ensures compliance with frameworks such as ISO 27036 (supplier relationships) and NIST vendor risk management guidelines.

The described scenario is aninjection attack. Injection occurs when unvalidated input—such as SQL commands, script code, or OS instructions—is sent to an application through API forms or parameters. If the application fails to sanitize input, the attacker’s code may be executed with full system privileges.

On-path attacks intercept communication, credential attacks target authentication, and denial-of-service floods services. None involve code execution via unvalidated input.

Injection is a top risk in OWASP API Security Top 10. Developers must implement input validation, parameterized queries, and least privilege principles to mitigate this risk. API gateways and WAFs provide additional layers of protection but cannot replace secure coding practices.

The primary safeguard against licensing risk is ensuring the organization has thecorrect type of license. Software licenses define usage rights, limitations, and legal obligations. Using software outside of license terms can lead to legal penalties, financial fines, and reputational damage.

Location of licenses is a management issue, not a risk control. Restricting usage to closed-source or open-source alone is not practical, as both models require compliance with license agreements.

Correct licensing includes verifying user counts, subscription terms, geographic restrictions, and intended use. It also involves monitoring for unauthorized installations and conducting regular audits. Proper license management ensures legal compliance, cost control, and operational continuity.

Industry best practice requires that encryption keys arestored separately from the data they protect. This ensures that if the data storage system is compromised, attackers cannot immediately decrypt sensitive information. The use of a secure escrow system is a recognized approach.

An escrow provides controlled storage for encryption keys, ensuring they are only accessible by authorized processes and not co-located with the protected data. Keeping keys “local” to the data creates a single point of failure. A public or private repository without specialized protection mechanisms would also be insufficient due to risks of insider threats or misconfiguration.

By placing keys in an independent escrow system, the organization enforces separation of duties, strengthens defense-in-depth, and aligns with cryptographic standards from NIST and ISO. This practice is vital when dealing with archival data, where long-term confidentiality must be preserved even as systems evolve.