Cybercriminals and hackers have increasingly exploited vulnerabilities in industry standard IT and security tools, leading to major security incidents.
Incidents across multiple market segments highlight how quickly liabilities in widely used management tools can become targets for both state-sponsored groups and ransomware operators, underscoring the importance of safeguarding against supply chain cyberattacks.
Certainly, supply chain attacks exploiting backdoors are not a new trend. Cyber hackers have long focused on exploiting third-party control failures. Previous attacks on software like SolarWinds Orion or VMware Workspace ONE are just a few examples where hackers successfully targeted an organization’s supply chain.
One of the most infamous supply chain attacks to date remains the RSA SecureID token breach. Using stolen data related to RSA’s SecurID authentication system, attackers compromised major RSA customers, including an industry leader Lockheed Martin, who relied on these tokens to secure their most sensitive networks and systems data.
Breakdowns in systems and internal processes by third parties can lead to catastrophic operational and reputational damage. It is no longer satisfactory to merely implement basic vendor management procedures. Organizations must also take proactive measures to safeguard against third-party vendor control failures.
So how can this be accomplished?
- Regular Software and System Updates: Confirm that your systems and those of your suppliers are regularly updated and patched for known vulnerabilities. Prevent the use of unsupported or outdated software that could introduce new vulnerabilities.
- Strengthen Supplier Risk Management: Make certain all suppliers and third-party vendors adhere to strict cybersecurity policy and protocols. Assess their compliance with relevant standards (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST, GDPR). Evaluate vendors based on the sensitivity of the data they handle and the criticality of the services they provide. Consider requiring suppliers to use independent verification services to test software applications before procurement and deployment.
- Implement Strong Access Controls: Restrict third-party vendor access to only the data and systems necessary for their operations. Confirm they cannot access other areas of your network. Require multi-factor authentication for vendors accessing your systems. Adopting a Zero Trust approach ensures continuous verification of all users—both internal and
- Reinforce Your Environment: Configure cloud environments to reject authorization requests involving tokens that deviate from accepted IT norms. With on-premises systems, follow the National Security Agency’s guidelines by deploying a Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)-validated Hardware Security Module (HSM) to store token-signing certificate private keys. HSMs significantly reduce the risk of key theft by threat actors.
- Safeguard the Software Development Pipeline: Protect administrative access to the tools and applications used by DevOps teams. Support secure application configuration via secrets and authenticate applications and services with high confidence. Mandate that software suppliers certify and extend security controls to cover microservices, cloud, and DevOps environments.
- Utilize Security Tools and Technologies: Make sure to segment your network to prevent attackers from moving laterally if they manage to breach one section. Use Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions to detect malicious activities on devices connected via third parties. Encrypt sensitive data shared with suppliers, both at rest and in transit. A robust cybersecurity posture requires readiness for data security breaches, especially as data moves through various channels like email, cloud, and AI tools. Therefore, business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) solutions have become essential components of the modern technology stack.
- Implement Frameworks and Best Practices: Most importantly, implement the NIST cybersecurity framework to help identify, protect, detect, govern, respond to, and recover from cyber threats. Also consider adopting supply chain-specific frameworks like the Shared Assessments Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) or ISO 28001 for supply chain security management.
- Legal Safeguards: Incorporate cybersecurity requirements into vendor contracts, including mandatory security controls, data protection measures, and breach notification obligations. For high-risk vendors, require third-party audits or independent security assessments.
Over the last few years, as companies have fortified their defenses against direct network and system attacks, cybercriminals and hackers have put additional focus to exploiting vulnerabilities in the supply chain to gain backdoor access to critical data and systems. It is vital for businesses in all segments to actively assess and manage IT security risks within their supply chain to significantly reduce their exposure to third-party cyberattacks and reinforce their overall cybersecurity posture.
Modevity Vendor Risk Management as a Service supports organizations by mitigating varied company and regulatory risks and utilizes powerful database technology, AI, and vendor assessment automation with continuous monitoring – to provide real-time reports for the identification of risks when conducting business with vendors across varied departments or operations.
Contact Information:
Thomas J. Canova, Co-Founder, Chief Marketing Officer
Modevity, LLC
610-251-0700