ProcessUnity-State-of-Third-Party-Risk-Assessments-2026.md

# Executive summary The ProcessUnity State of Third-Party Risk Assessments 2026 (Ponemon Institute survey of 1,465 practitioners) finds a widening maturity gap in third-party risk management: organizations report frequent third-party breaches (average 12/year), long assessment timelines (many >4 months), heavy manual effort, limited vendor coverage, slow or non-responsive vendors, incomplete remediation before onboarding, and low fourth-party visibility; the report recommends targeted automation, improved data access and outcome-based metrics to close the gap and scale TPRM programs.