Opening Scene:
London. Rain. Vape smoke.
Cut to a chaotic office.
Phones ringing. Deals flying.
Enter “The Client”, a fast-growing healthtech firm with more ambition than process.
Their business? Scalable, digital, disrupting healthcare.
Their Achilles’ heel? A dodgy crew of third-party suppliers no one was watching.
Voiceover (Jason Statham-esque):
“Now, when you’re growing fast, it’s easy to forget the little thing. Like who the hell’s got access to your systems. One minute you’re closing a Series B, the next your payroll provider’s been phished, your customers are pissed, and your CISO’s on the floor crying in the server room.”
Enter Muse Cyber.
Clear thinking. Pragmatic solutions. No time for BS.
Brought in to untangle the digital spaghetti before the regulators or ransom gangs do.
The Problem
The Client’s internal cyber controls? Decent.
- MFA. ✅
- EDR. ✅
- Phishing drills? A few.
But the suppliers?
A total shambles.
“They were trusting vendors like you trust your cousin Dave to ‘look after your flat’ while you’re on holiday. And just like Dave, these suppliers were poking around places they shouldn’t.”
No risk register. No breach plan. No clue.
The only thing they did have was a ticking time bomb called Supply Chain Risk.
The Plan (Cue the Heist Montage Music)
Muse rolls in like the cyber version of a tactical SWAT team with clipboards.
Step 1: Map the Network
We build a Third Party Inventory—every dodgy vendor, shady plug-in, and rogue API gets named and shamed.
Step 2: Risk Triage
We slap a CMMI-lite model on the lot. It’s like sorting the local pub regulars:
- Criticals: The ones who can burn the place down
- Mediums: Bit messy, but manageable
- Lows: Mostly harmless, like your nan’s knitting club
Step 3: Build a Lightweight TPRM Framework
No bloated enterprise GRC platform. Just:
- Risk scores based on the CIA triad (not that CIA — Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability)
- Contract templates with security clauses tighter than a bookie’s wallet
- Supplier due diligence tools that even Dave could fill in
Step 4: Run a Breach Drill
Tabletop simulation. Alarms. Coffee drunk.
Ops meets IT meets the panicked intern who forgot their password.
“It was beautiful chaos—and exactly what they needed.”
The Results
In under 90 days:
- 78% of suppliers reviewed, ranked, and brought to heel
- Risk register in place, with names, numbers, and escalation plans
- A simulated breach that didn’t actually cause a breach
- And the cherry on top: a massive enterprise contract won because they could prove supply chain assurance
Lessons from the Job:
- Trust isn’t a security control. Not for Dave, not for your cloud CRM.
- You don’t need an army. Just a playbook, some swagger, and a decent toolkit.
- Cyber drills aren’t optional. If you don’t rehearse, you react. And that never ends well.
- Regulators love a clean register. Customers do too. It’s like showing up to a date in a clean shirt.
Final Scene:
The office is quieter. The risk register’s glowing.
The COO breathes easy.
Muse Cyber? Already on their next job, sunglasses on, dashboard bobblehead nodding along.
“Third-party risk isn’t sexy. Until it blows up in your face. Lucky for this lot, we got there first.”
Roll credits.
