How hackers can get into your supplier’s network and how to prevent it

Supply chain attacks have quickly become a prevalent threat to businesses over the last year, particularly accounting for a 4X increase. The impact of a supply chain attack can be brutal and this security risk shouldn’t be taken lightly.

We go through the various ways hackers can access your supplier’s network, and how your business can stay protected.

Phishing attacks

This method probably sounds like we’re beating the drum, but it’s making the headlines for a reason! With 91% of cyber attacks beginning with a phishing email, can your business really afford to ignore this risk? All it takes is just one click from your employee, whether that’s opening a harmful attachment, or inputting login details on a malicious site. Unfortunately this issue is still ongoing and a major risk for your business.

How to stay protected

• Identify your suppliers and flag any high-risk ones who have access to your critical data
• Ensure your high risk suppliers are implementing technologies which can flag suspicious emails and malicious contents
• Ensure your high risk suppliers are implementing security awareness training to train and test employees

Negligent employees

Security isn’t just a concern for IT teams, it should be a business wide effort to keep the business and its assets protected. Many employees fail to follow basic security practices, something as small as using easy passwords for multiple accounts.

How to stay protected

The only way to keep on top of this concern is to ensure that your suppliers are training their employees on basic security awareness and following best practices.

Misconfigured cloud applications

Misconfigurations in the cloud are one of the biggest threats that businesses are facing today. It’s down to admins and IT teams to ensure the appropriate settings in the cloud are made in order to keep intruders out of the network. Usually these misconfigurations are due to a rushed set up, something which a lot of business can relate to given the quick shift the cloud when businesses quickly shifted to remote working.

How to stay protected

Check in with your suppliers to ensure that they are carrying out an audit of their cloud applications to pick up any misconfigurations that may be a risk. Any risks identified will need to be remediated to ensure safety going forward.

For more information on how your business can stay protected, contact our team today.