Cyberattacks on supply chains are becoming increasingly common. Risk mitigation in the supply chain has subsequently become an integral component of risk management strategies and information security initiatives. To help this endeavor succeed, we’ve compiled a list of the top supply chain security concerns to be aware of in 2023.
Organizations must address these security risks in their incident response strategies to avoid security flaws that enable third-party data security breaches and supply chain attacks.
Top Supply Chain Security Threats in 2023
Security threats involve exposures and cyber threats that have a detrimental influence on the integrity & protection of sensitive data. The following are the top security control threats causing supply chain security challenges in 2023.
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Third-Party Vendor Risks
Third-party risks can pose serious data security concerns to the organization. This is frequently the result of inadequate security practices from a weak security strategy.
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Digital Risks
The more digital tools you add to the ecosystems, the more possible network gateways attackers have. Software flaws like zero-day exploits or missed configuration issues might cause these vulnerabilities.
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Supplier Fraud
Supplier fraud, also known as vendor fraud, occurs when a cybercriminal impersonates a known merchant and seeks to modify payment systems. These occurrences are challenging to detect since fraudsters frequently employ complex social engineering tactics such as AI-generated voicemails, phishing attempts, and Deepfake video recordings. There’s no supplier restriction on fraud occurrences affecting global supply chain security. Third-party suppliers falling victim to different social engineering and fraud strategies are causing increasing data breach instances.
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Data Protection
The integrity of data along the supply chain is a major security problem. Security measures should assure the security of all data states, both at rest and in motion. Because hackers understand that a target’s third-party vendor presumably has access to sensitive data, data encryption policies are especially crucial between third-party integrations.
Best practices for supply chain risk management
These practices can help address the common cybersecurity concerns in the supply chain:
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Third-Party Risk Assessments
A regular third-party risk assessment plan will identify supply chain security vulnerabilities before thieves exploit them. These evaluations should ideally be adjustable to account for each supplier’s risk profile.
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Data Encryption
In this case, enforce encryption procedures on all types of data, particularly the interface of third-party integrations, to reduce the value of sensitive data. The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) would be there in an ideal world. It is one of the most difficult encryption methods to crack, which is why the government and military often use it.
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Attack Surface Monitoring
An attack surface monitoring technology will uncover third-party security threats, increasing the likelihood of a supply chain assault.
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Incident Response Planning
In the case of a supply chain assault, the organization should plan and coordinate the responses rather than be haphazard and ad hoc. A well-thought-out incident response strategy should assist your security team in preparing for any supply chain attack scenario while minimizing the impact on company continuity.
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Penetration Testing
Businesses should not utilize a supply chain assault to test incident response methods for the first time. Penetration testing should be used regularly to evaluate response methods. Pen testing may potentially reveal sophisticated supply chain security dangers that security systems have missed.
Supply Chain Operations
Handling global supply chains involves far more risks than cyber security. The Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model was established by the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) to assist various organizations in their supply chain management operations. The SCOR model combines business process improvement, best practices, performance benchmarking, and organizational design into a coherent model that drives a collection of processes, performance indicators, best practices, and skills.
The following are the six major management processes:
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Plan
Procedures for balancing aggregate demand and supply to design a strategy that best fulfills sourcing, production, & delivery criteria.
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Source
Processes that buy products and services to fulfill anticipated or real demand.
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Make
Processes that convert a product into a final condition to fulfill anticipated or real demand.
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Deliver
Processes that offer finished products and services in response to anticipated or real demand, often involving order, transportation, and distribution management.
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Return
Any procedure that involves returning or receiving the returned merchandise. These procedures extend to post-delivery customer service.
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Enable
Processes that organize, support, or handle information or relationships on which the planning and execution processes rely. Cybersecurity practices are one of the operational areas’ main enablers.
Mitigate software supply chain threats
While no company wishes for the cyberattacks, it also does not wish to be held liable for another business experiencing a similar situation. The goal is to implement safeguards for your software supply chain.
The following are some security best practices to consider for security teams:
- Access resources across the supply chain with the least privilege (e.g., developer tools, source code repositories, and other software systems), activate multi-factor authentication and use a strong password.
- Employees should get frequent security training.
- Secure all of your linked devices and sensitive data.
- Know your suppliers and the people with whom you do business, beginning with your tier-one suppliers. Conduct risk assessments to analyze each supplier’s cybersecurity posture and public vulnerability policies.
- Scan and fix vulnerable systems regularly.
Developers should also consider – Secure coding methods, the usage of lock files, and other security-focused activities like:
- Check the checksums.
- Source control should include vendor dependencies.
- Publication and consumption of the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).
- Accept Software Chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA), which include the ability to sign your software artefacts to verify provenance digitally.
- Using automation to improve your processes and procedures.
- Scanning your program with automated security testing techniques such as Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Static Application Security Testing (SAST), and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) is recommended (DAST).
How can CISSP help?
CSSLP is the leading secure software development certification in the business. Earning the widely renowned CSSLP secure software development certification will provide you with the fundamental understanding needed to manage software supply chain risks and threats, as well as apply standard mitigation measures to limit the danger of embedding malicious code.
Eliminate system failures and reduce the chances of losing important data with official CISSP training.
Once you have employees with the CISSP certification, they will demonstrate their skills to benefit your business with –
- Complete understanding of how to secure or protect confidential business data from hackers.
- Skills to analyze risks and be aware of the common hacker strategies that can affect your business. They can determine the weak point of the organizations and work on them.
- Aptitude in improving customer and employee privacy ensures all the information stays with the business.
Get (ISC)2 CISSP Training & Certification and increase your business visibility as well as credibility in the cybersecurity market. Cognixia is the world’s leading digital talent transformation company that offers a wide range of courses, including CISSP training online with a comprehensive CISSP study guide.
Here’s what you will cover in this course –
- Learn and apply the concepts of security & risk management
- Gain an understanding of security engineering to protect information by exploring and examining security models and frameworks
- Learn how to identify, categorize, & prioritize assets
- Examination and security network architecture and its components
- Learn how to identify & control access to protect assets
- Designing and conducting security assessment strategies, logging, & monitoring activities
- Developing a recovery strategy and maintaining operational resilience
- Learn how to secure the software development cycle
