Introduction
We all know how important cyber security is now
that technology powers commerce in such a significant way. But if you perform
work as part of a supply chain, you know that the stakes are especially high.
Given that you’re part of a network of providers, vendors, transporters and
managers, the impact of just one weak link in the supply chain cyber Security
“chain of custody” can be significant.
Why Supply Chain Cyber Security
Is Essential
It doesn’t matter which type of service you perform
or which varieties of product you manufacture or help to move. Cyber security
is everybody’s problem and everybody’s responsibility. As technology cements
its place in our industrial and personal lives, the security of our networks,
as well as our personal and corporate data, has become central to several
sectors:
·
Military contractors must abide by guidelines
like Traffic in Arms Regulations and others, which help vouch safe sensitive
military data in third-party hands.
·
Healthcare providers are bound by Medical
Regulations, which helps ensure the ever-more-digital world of patient records
is kept safe and away from prying eyes.
·
Some service- and commodity-based organizations are
required to, or can at least benefit from, requiring partners to keep Standards
for Attestation and Organization Control reports, which is
especially helpful for maintaining compliance, availability, privacy and
confidentiality for supply chain partners who store data in the cloud.
Taking cyber security risks seriously in supply
chain is imperative because what’s really at risk isn’t necessarily something
with a fixed, one-time value. Merchandise can be replaced. What’s at stake is
quite often the key to your remaining profitable at all. You stand to lose
vital organizational and client data, intellectual property and trade secrets.
In some cases, you’ll be held responsible for damages if formal laws and
guidelines apply.
The primary mission when it comes to hardening the supply chain in
any industry against cyber-threats is a three-pronged attack: “Anticipate,
Mitigate, Improve” Critically, each of these three parts must happen in concert
and, ideally, before you actually have to deal with a loss of data.
Here’s a crash course in holding the supply chain
partners, and ourselves, to higher security standards.
1.
Familiarize ourselves with
Industry-Specific Regulations
It is mentioned that some of the official
guidelines and regulations that have appeared in recent years, but our supply
chains have regulations of their own — particularly when you operate in
critical areas like foods, beverages, medicines and vaccines, medical devices and other
biotechnological and pharmaceutical interests. The integrity of the data
associated with these goods is critical, which is why cloud providers find
themselves bound by ever-stricter guidelines.
These guidelines give you a good basic benchmark
for supply chain cyber security in your specific industry and might make you
ware of threat vectors you didn’t know about. But it’s up to you to go above
and beyond.
2.
Determine Which Vendors Have
Access to Your Network
Simply doing business
with multiple parties at once opens you to certain types of risk, but one of
the most preventable is unauthorized or unnecessary access to your network and
assets. Vendors and other actors within the supply chain naturally share digital
properties and call upon much of the same data, but your supply chain can’t be
hardened against supply chain cyber security risks until you’ve first
determined which parties have access, and the level of their credentials and
privileges.
Malicious
— even unintentionally malicious — actors within your organization might have
unsecured or unlimited privileges, too, which is a risk vector which has
contributed to substantial financial losses for private enterprise over the
years.
Think of this as the
industrial equivalent of leaving the password to your home PC’s administrator
account on a post-it note on your desk. You’ll likely have to share that
credential with another party at some point, but revoking access from parties
who no longer need it closes a vulnerable backdoor you might’ve otherwise
forgotten to close.
3.
Create Cross-Functional Roles
and Teams to Oversee Risk
Believe it or not, we’re already in the process of
moving beyond one-size-fits all Security Officers or Risk Managers. Instead, we
call for the creation of cross-organizational teams and specialists who know
how to answer specific risks as they apply to each of our business partners and
processes.
For example, some parties within the supply chain
might have a greater likelihood of encountering counterfeit products or might
have stricter requirements for the on boarding of new vendors and contractors.
As risk becomes more uniformly dispersed across the organization, so we too
must use our capabilities to respond when the worst should happen.
4.
Be Explicit About Security
Requirements in Your Contracts
The
importance of proactive measures cannot be overstated — and outlining your
expectations as you enter into business with new supply chain partners is an
obvious first one to take.
We
should not be afraid to use specific language and even create
legally-binding documents with the help of an expert to make sure each of
your partners knows exactly what is expected of them when it comes to how they
access and handle your data and that there’s legal recourse in place if they
fall short.
5.
Monitor Your Technology
Providers and Other Partners
None of the supply chain
best practices out there are particularly useful without some old-fashioned
checks and balances. To put it another way, you don’t just need expectations
and guidelines — you need a way to make sure each of your third-party partners
is following-through by continually monitoring their performance.
There
are ready-made solutions out there as well as best practices as described by Govt.
Regulation bodies. The ultimate goal of each continuous monitoring solution is
the same:
·
Maintain awareness of emerging threats and
vulnerabilities.
·
Establish communication protocols between partners
within the supply chain.
·
Analyze organizational risk on a sufficient-enough
frequency to guard against new risks as they appear and to make changes as needed.
·
Proactively evaluate the likely effectiveness of
your risk responses to new threats.
·
Evaluate recent changes, and propose new ones, for
physical and digital infrastructure.
Naturally, continuous monitoring of your operations
and those of your supply chain partners will help keep you measure your
performance against regulatory action at the state and federal levels as well
as new requirements within your specific industry.
Seek Constant Improvement
We’ve talked about some of the “top-down” fixes for
mitigating supply chain cyber security risks, including Central regulation and
industry-specific guidelines. But each company is unique and has its own needs,
which might make your particular approach unique. For instance, some companies
are exploring Block chain-powered solutions such as “smart contracts,”
which aren’t contracts at all but rather bundles of code that
automatically execute commands when requirements are met by one or both
parties.
The point is, the future holds all kinds of exciting
solutions for the problems we’ve gone over here. Keep yourself aware,
knowledgeable and up-to-date on the wider world of supply chain.
