Introduction
Cybersecurity is well know across the corporate world, but attention is increasingly shifting to cyber resilience vs cybersecurity and the distinction between them. For legal teams and governance leaders handling highly sensitive and confidential information, cybersecurity is non-negotiable. Even without direct responsibility for security implementation, they clearly understand the risks associated with a weak cyber resilience profile.
Today, resilience has become a catch-all promise in the market. Vendors claim they are secure and position themselves as the foundation of a strong cyber resilience strategy. The question for leadership teams and legal professionals is whether those claims hold when disruption occurs.
To cut through marketing language, the first step is understanding cyber resilience vs cybersecurity. Then legal, compliance, and other stakeholders should require clear answers to a short list of questions before selecting any vendor that handles sensitive corporate data.
Cyber resilience vs cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is traditionally framed around prevention, focusing on blocking incidents to reduce exposure. Cyber resilience refers to an organization’s ability not only to prevent attacks, but also to respond promptly and continue delivering operations during adverse circumstances.
Cyber resilience and cybersecurity are not truly opposed. They address cyber threats from different angles. In fact, Gartner projects that by 2028, half of CISOs will formally rebrand their cybersecurity programs as cyber resilience programs.
The reason? Cybersecurity alone is no longer enough. Disruptive incidents are inevitable, especially as AI powered tools become part of everyday work. What matters most is preparedness and recovery capability. Cyber resilience takes a broader view, aiming to minimize impact on business goals and ensure continuity, not just protect systems from incidents.
This shift also helps explain the marketing noise likely to grow around the concept, and the hype that may follow. For governance roles and legal teams, the implication is direct. When disruption happens, the organization must prove it made defensible decisions, respected regulatory obligations, maintained a clear chain of accountability, and managed third parties responsibly.
5 questions to ask your service provider
In order to ensure a service provider is not only complying with the bare minimum cybersecurity requirements, thinking in terms of cyber resilience vs cybersecurity can help. There are several questions that can guide leadership. This is crucial for making the right decision when it comes to legaltech solutions. Whether for a contract management tool, entity management, or a fully integrated suite of solutions, these questions will help:
1. Are you independently certified, and can you provide evidence?
There are mandatory and non mandatory compliance requirements for tech vendors, and in legaltech, even the non-mandatory ones matter. Any vendor can claim they follow best practices and point to certifications. That is a good start. Certifications show the practices are audited and maintained, but the real question is how seriously a vendor takes them.
For many legaltech service providers, SOC 2 certification has become imperative. This certification complements ISO 27001 and is handled by external auditors. In achieve SOC 2 certification, a vendor’s systems must meet defined standards across security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
What to request:
Legaltech vendors typically list their certifications on a dedicated page. For example, DiliTrust maintains certifications aligned with these standards above and states that its security policy is validated through ISO certifications and a SOC 2 report.
2. Where is data hosted, and what jurisdictions govern it?
Legal teams and governance leaders understand the importance of data hosting. Not all customers have the same needs or requirements, and data location has direct implications for regulatory compliance and data sovereignty.
A credible legaltech vendor should provide clear explanations of its hosting model, including physical security measures and how cross-border dependencies are managed. For solutions such as contract management or board management platforms, it is generally preferable to work with service providers that operate servers across regions rather than centralizing everything in a single location.
What to request:
A good example is DiliTrust’s commitment to local hosting and continuous monitoring to prevent unauthorized access to data. Currently, DiliTrust’s servers are located in different regions to best comply with customer needs. For instance, the company expanded local hosting options to the Saudi Arabia and UAE regions.
3. Do you follow a zero access model, and how is it enforced?
Access by vendor staff to customer data is one of the most overlooked risk factors. Data hosting and certifications are often treated as the visible foundations of cyber resilience, but internal access controls can hide the biggest security gaps.
A strong security posture requires a strict access governance model, ideally aligned with a zero access principle. What does this mean? The zero access principle, not to be confused with Zero Trust or Zero Trust Network Access, means the service provider does not have default internal access to the customer data. Customer data remains under the customer’s exclusive control, with access only possible through controlled and documented exception procedures, where applicable.
What to request:
Any legaltech vendor should be able to clearly explain who can access customer environments, under what conditions, and how access is controlled, monitored, and reviewed over time. DiliTrust operates under a zero access model where its teams do not access sensitive customer information and customer data remains under the customer’s exclusive control.
4. What identity and access controls are available for users?
Identity and access management is a core component of cyber resilience. Many security incidents do not begin with sophisticated attacks, but with compromised credentials. A legaltech vendor should support strong authentication standards and enterprise-grade identity management to reduce exposure and limit the impact of unauthorized access.
In practice, a vendor should provide identity capabilities such as two factor authentication and single sign on, enabling customers to enforce secure access policies across teams. This is especially important in high exposure environments such as board management platforms, where access often extends beyond internal users to executive assistants, external directors, and occasional participants. For example, when board members join meetings from different devices or locations, single sign on helps ensure access remains tied to corporate identity controls.
What to request:
DiliTrust highlights user access controls such as two-factor authentication and single sign-on capabilities as part of its security measures, ensuring that only authorized users can access or manipulate data.
5. How do you prove continuous security, not just annual security?
Security is not a one-time achievement that vendors can simply tick off a checklist. It is continuous and must be embedded in the broader company strategy. For organizations looking to digitize governance processes, it is crucial to assess the ongoing strength of their legaltech vendor’s security program.
Legal and governance work is complex, sensitive, and highly confidential. To operate in the right conditions, teams must be able to rely on proof of continuous monitoring, regular security updates, employee training, and clear accountability for data protection. This proof can take many forms, from recurring employee training programs to published codes of conduct. It is especially important today for AI-related use cases, as well as for maintaining documented and enforceable security policies.
What to request:
Today, multiple regulations require precise and well-documented incident response policies. This is reflected in 2025 with the entry into force of DORA in the European Union. DiliTrust offers corporate governance tools designed to support DORA compliance for legal teams. Organizations should ensure their service providers stay up to date with evolving regulations and treat security as a continuous effort.
Ready for DORA?
Rewatch or discover our webinar on DORA, covering the principles of this new regulatory framework and sharing actionable insights on getting ready to be DORA compliant.
Cyber resilience vs cybersecurity: a matter of transparency and proof
Cyber resilience vs cybersecurity is not a choice. Cybersecurity focuses on reducing exposure. Cyber resilience builds on that foundation, ensuring an organization can respond, recover, and continue operating when disruption occurs.
That is why vendor due diligence matters beyond compliance. The five questions above help confirm whether a legaltech provider can support continuity, accountability, and regulatory readiness over time. For legal and governance teams, this is essential, because disruption quickly becomes a matter of responsibility, evidence, and third-party risk.
Ultimately, cyber resilience depends on the ecosystem you rely on. If a provider cannot demonstrate resilience foundations with transparency and proof, your own cyber resilience posture is compromised, regardless of how strong your internal policies may be.
