How to Choose Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Software for DORA Compliance

Choosing the best ICT Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) software is key to DORA compliance. 

That’s because, under DORA, third-party risks are considered your own risks. 

DORA’s Chapter V makes ICT third-party risk part of your overall ICT risk framework. This goes beyond typical TPRM requirements and necessitates strong, risk-based ongoing oversight (for critical vendors, that can mean near-real-time monitoring), tougher controls for critical or important functions, and auditable proof of governance that you can demonstrate to an auditor after an incident. 

DORA ICT risk management software solutions, such as Spektion, have emerged as a useful solution to this challenge. In this article, we provide an overview of what these tools do and what the best compliance and third-party risk management teams look for when selecting DORA TPRM software in 2025. 

Why TPRM Under DORA Is Different 

DORA became applicable on 17 January 2025, and requires covered entities to treat third-party risk as part of their integrated ICT risk. 

The challenge here is that traditional TPRM and vulnerability scanners, as well as generic TPRM processes, are not equipped to handle this task. 

For example:

• CMDBs and scanners answer what is present, not what is happening.
• Shadow and OEM tools bypass inventories. 
• Proof-of-concepts can drift into production. 
• Contracts can claim controls that are not present after investigation. 

A DORA-readyTPRM software solution can provide ongoing, near-real-time monitoring for these gaps, tying software behavior to risk, obligations, and exits. If your visibility in third-party risk stops at asset lists, you’re managing assumptions only.

What a DORA TPRM Tool Does to Aid Compliance

A DORA-ready TPRM tool can dramatically improve compliance outcomes compared to relying on traditional approaches to third-party risk management. 

We can look at the benefits across six different parts of a typical DORA third-party risk management lifecycle: 

1. Plan: A DORA TPRM tool, such as Spektion, maps your installed software environment and its behaviours, i.e., what touches what, where it lives, and what’s exploitable (not just CVEs). It then auto-tiers risks based on exploitability.
2. Evaluate (due diligence): A runtime monitoring tool can be used to run security-assessed and controlled POCs in your environment to validate vendor security controls. 
3. Contract: Outcomes from monitoring can be used to create enforceable terms feedback info to vendors that helps you generate SLA baselines based on observed behavior. 
4. Monitor: A DORA TPRM tool can be used to continuously track SLA adherence, privilege changes, and anomalous egress. This can also aid in threat detection and defense by mapping suspicious behavior to MITRE ATT&CK for rapid triage. 
5. Exit & transition: A tool that monitors installed software can be used to maintain a live dependency map, allowing for planned substitution without downtime. 
6. Govern: Tools like Spektion can be used as a source of truth when maintaining a current third-party inventory.

How to Choose a TPRM Solution for DORA

For many firms, monitoring live software behaviour as the source of truth is the fastest and most defensible way to achieve and maintain DORA compliance.

That’s why the best DORA compliance teams choose solutions that use software runtime as the source of truth for their installed software environment. This choice enables stakeholders to see and verify what third-party software actually does, allowing you to assess risk and validate claims. 

The Runtime Vulnerability Management (RVM) capability that Spektion has can observe real software behavior across your estate. This turns guidance into operations, offering pre-contract validation, enforceable SLAs, continuous monitoring, and exit proof. It requires light deployment, but delivers the defensible, runtime-backed evidence that supports DORA’s governance and oversight requirements.

DORA TPRM Is Governance + Runtime Evidence

You need governance workflows to manage software life cycles and runtime evidence to prove whether your governance actually works. If you must choose, prioritize the runtime layer first. It’s the difference between a policy and a control you can defend. 

When a tool can map behavior to risk tiers, populate board reports automatically, verify subcontractors and locations, and give you a dependency map for exits, you’re DORA-ready.