One of the most pressing threats facing companies today is the rise in supply chain attacks. These cyberattacks attempt to infiltrate networks of larger organisations through security weaknesses in third-party service providers. 

The UK ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) emphasises that external party service providers are handling a growing quantity of personal information for other organisations, making them attractive targets for cyber criminals. 

Research from Gartner also predicts that 45% of organisations around the world will have experienced supply chain attacks by 2025, marking a threefold increase since 2021. 

As a result, businesses can no longer depend on internal security strategies to protect sensitive data from potential supply chain breaches. Instead, they need to take a proactive approach to make sure third-party providers maintain robust security standards. 

Let’s explore more about what supply attacks are and more importantly, how to prevent supply chain attacks from affecting your organisation. 

What Are Supply Chain Attacks?

Many organisations use digital systems to manage internal IT procedures. However, as these systems become more costly and complex to handle, more and more businesses choose to use external service providers, instead of internal solutions. This creates a digitally linked supply chain that includes various vendors, partners, and suppliers. 

Supply chain attacks involve cybercriminals infiltrating these trusted third-party service providers to compromise a target organisation’s systems. 

Hackers typically perform these attacks to obtain access to larger enterprises in the supply chain. Once they are successful, they can steal sensitive information, distribute malware, or sabotage critical corporate systems. 

If an organisation has a large quantity of external-party suppliers, their risk of supply chain tracks increases as the number of security vulnerabilities and entry points increases. Consequently, it becomes increasingly necessary for businesses to implement security measures to protect against these threats. 

How Do Supply Chain Attacks Work?

A supply chain attack requires hackers to add malicious code into software or look for methods that jeopardise network components. If a hacker finds a security weakness, they will make the most of the opportunity, attempting to gain access to important digital resources. 

The reality is that many endangered products originate from trusted external parties. This means that supply chain attackers find it easier to infiltrate their target’s systems. This may occur through an application or security updates, which paradoxically, are meant to fix security vulnerabilities. 

The UK ICO has recognised three main examples of supply chain attacks: software, digital, and hardware.

Software Supply Chain Attacks

A software supply chain attack involves hackers adding independent code to a product or system. 

This is called malicious code injection, where offending programmers could alter the code to carry out harmful actions inside the application. If successful, the hackers could steal sensitive data or leave an opportunity for hackers to remotely manage corporate systems.  

Digital Supply Chain Attacks

A digital supply chain attack takes place when software developers use popular libraries to operate within their systems. 

If a hacker adds malicious code into one of these libraries, any programmer who integrates the compromised library into their software exposes their product to security threats. 

Hardware Supply Chain Attacks

A hardware supply chain attack involves criminals delivering hardware items embedded with malicious components, like embedded firmware in network routers or switches. 

Once these malicious devices are integrated into a business’s infrastructure, the hacker can obtain unauthorised remote access or sensitive information from company systems. 

How To Prevent Supply Chain Attacks

Supply chain attacks present a significant risk to businesses, making it crucial to implement strong defences against these security threats. Fortunately, there are best practices you can take to improve your security posture.

Here are some things businesses can do to prevent supply chain attacks from affecting operations.

1. Perform Frequent Third-Party Risk Assessments

Evaluation of supplier risk should be an ongoing process, as the threat landscape continuously evolves and new vulnerabilities can emerge at any time. Do not integrate new technologies or applications into your business network without assessing their complexity beforehand. 

Organisations should:

• Assess the security posture of third-party vendors before integrating them.
• Evaluate their compliance with industry standards (eg. NIST or ISO 27001)
• Consistently monitor third-party partners for any security changes or weaknesses in their risk profile. 

Additionally, it’s important to investigate the vendor’s help forums to identify and report security issues and observe how promptly the vendor addresses complaints. Avoid using programs that rely on outdated software code or those that haven’t undergone frequent security reviews. 

Once you’ve chosen to add selected third-party vendors to your supply chain, it’s important to form a culture of transparent, open communication. Establishing regular check-ins and sharing details about security practices can lead to better collaboration and trust.  

2. Implement A Zero-Trust Approach

A zero-trust approach is a strategy that surmises all network activity is malicious. This process assumes that threats can originate from inside and outside an organisation, making it imperative to verify each access request, no matter where it originated from. 

Here are key Zero Trust practices that can help reduce security risks posed by third parties:

• Micro-segmentation: Separating an organisation’s network into smaller parts, so that if a vendor is compromised, the security breach is contained to a smaller area. 
• Least Privilege Access: Giving vendors only necessary access to perform tasks, nothing more.
• Multi-Factor Authentication: Check all third-party vendors accessing business systems use MFA. This adds an additional security layer by demanding several verification forms before granting access to important systems. 

3. Incident Response and Recovery Planning

Even the most secure networks can encounter security breaches, but an effective incident response plan can help prevent supply chain attacks by establishing clear protocols and preventative measures. 

For example, an incident response plan may make certain that security event reporting clauses are in contracts with third-party suppliers. This affirms they are accountable for maintaining strong security practices and investing in their own security, reducing the overall risk to your business. 

Defining guidelines for handling incidents based on real-world examples also helps organisations recognise vulnerabilities and take preemptive actions to mitigate risks. This should include updating customers and key stakeholders when a security breach occurs, including steps to address the issue.  

Practising incident response plans regularly with key suppliers ensures everyone is prepared and understands what to do if a supply chain attack occurs, reinforcing security measures that are in place. 

4. Use Endpoint Detection and Response Solutions

Adding Endpoint Detection and Response solutions can help businesses improve their cybersecurity posture. 

Supply chain cyber attacks regularly take advantage of poorly defended endpoints, but EDR systems can protect endpoints against malicious efforts, preventing a variety of endpoint attacks. 

EDR tools deliver real-time monitoring and assessment of endpoint activities, helping to detect potential threats and suspicious activity early on. 

In the event of a detected threat, EDR tools can provide automated incident response capabilities. This enables organisations to efficiently isolate affected systems, contain breaches, and minimise the potential impact of supply chain attacks. 

When EDR tools are successful, cyber criminals cannot use the endpoint to spread attacks to other system areas, keeping organisations safe against threats posed by supply chain attacks. 

How We Can Help

We hope that this post helped explain more about what supply chain attacks are, as well as how to prevent supply chain attacks from affecting your organisation.

At Net Consulting, we specialise in helping businesses generate robust cybersecurity defences. Our Supply Chain Attack Surface Protection service continuously scans your infrastructure to evaluate your entire attack surface and identify exactly where problems in your network lie. 

Call us at +44(0)29 2097 2020 to find out more, or send us a message through our contact form.