Three Cybersecurity Considerations Necessary for Successful Supply Chains

Supply chains are among the key components that act as the backbone of our economy - without them, none of the items that we simply order with the click of a button could get to use as quickly as they do, if at all! Proper supply chain management makes it so that manufacturers and retailers are able to produce and transport necessary items without creating extra expenses for companies and consumers. With all this in mind, it is understandable why keeping supply chains across all industries protected is fundamentally important to so many areas of our lives. This not only includes keeping delivery pathways clear and warehouses operational but also protecting the systems and devices necessary for operations to continue, which includes cybersecurity provisions. In 2021, supply chain cyber attacks increased by over 50%. Below, we'll take a look at some of the key actions and preparations that can be taken in order to help protect supply chains against attack.

Complete a Thorough Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is an appraisal of the vulnerabilities that are present in your organization's supply chain. This helps you to gain a better understanding of the scope of the threats that are present should a malicious actor target your business. A risk assessment is thorough when it looks into every level of the organization as well as the third-party vendors that your company works with. Though this can seem like a scary thing to do, the knowledge that is uncovered is invaluable when it comes to creating the plan for responding to an incident.

Create Cybersecurity Expectation Requirements for Suppliers

Among the largest breaches seen last year was the one affecting Audi, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz in which they worked with vendors that left their sensitive information on a publicly available cloud that was then accessed by malicious actors. One of the primary ways that cyber criminals gain access to a business is through targeting third-party vendors who tend to have less than ideal cybersecurity defenses.  It may be beneficial to use a vendor privileged access management (VPAM) solution to assist in this process, as this tool allows you to keep the strength of your corporate network even when working with other businesses. A VPAM allows your internal technical support folks the ability to authenticate each person from a third-party vendor to ensure that no malicious individuals are trying to gain access to your systems. A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so it is important to ensure that the businesses you work with are also strong in their cybersecurity best practices and that you take the extra steps necessary to ensure that the appropriate people who are supposed to have access to your systems have said access.

Implement an Incident Response Plan

Of course no business wants to be hit with an attack, but it is unfortunately more common than you might imagine, so it is best to be prepared in the event of an attack. When an attack or incident occurs, an incident response plan helps to make the process of reacting and getting back to normal easier. This should start with assessing the extent of the damage done so that you know the full scope of what needs to be done to fix the problem. This plan should be created far ahead of an attack as a measure taken before the chaos begins; this will act as the directions your key players should take in order to detect, respond to, and reduce the consequences of a cyber attack. There are five key steps to an incident response plan including (1) preparation, (2) identification, (3) containment, (4) eradication, and (5) recovery. There's also an unofficial, but very crucial sixth step where your company's incident response team looks back at the situation after it is fully resolved and completes a lessons learned.

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