Step 2
A third-party script enters the picture…
Here’s where third-party scripts come into the picture. Essentially, these scripts are lines of code from outside sources used to make a website interactive. Think of chatbots, newsletter sign-up forms, social media features, marketing monitoring, captchas, advertising, and analytic tools…
One tiny weak spot in one of those third party scripts can cause a big security headache.
Monitoring all these external scripts and keeping users safe is a huge challenge. Website owners have only limited control over the content of those scripts because they are often hosted and managed elsewhere. If a vendor makes a mistake or is unaware of a security vulnerability in their code or infrastructure, that might leave doors and windows open for bad actors.
Adding more scripts also means more potential security gaps to monitor. What is okay today, might be a security incident tomorrow.
Some third party scripts are developed and offered by companies or external consultants that may lack the necessary technical expertise. That makes it harder for website owners to monitor the security of their applications over time, expanding the risk.
Also, marketing automation firms can get acquired by larger firms without their customer noticing. These acquisitions frequently lead to personnel changes. Consequently scripts may go unmonitored as the maintainers are no longer with the company, and the new owner may be unaware of their existence or the associated risk. In the most extreme cases this can lead to a full fledged domain takeover if they forget to renew the domain name used to host a script.
