No matter which sector your business works in, you have to depend on third parties that provide goods and services to support your business. It doesn't matter if you're a small business or a large organization operating in the manufacturing and supply chain, these third parties are important for your daily work.
At some point, suppliers interact on-site or digitally with your business, and this makes them a threat factor. Businesses deal with these risk vectors by denying access to these supplies have, for instance, restricting access in a few areas, or using IT and network resources.
HelpNet Security says "by formalizing supplier assurance processes and using technology to facilitate their execution across all domains, companies can have confidence in the strength of the supply chain, mitigate cyber risks."
Generally, IT departments keep an eye on official suppliers that your business use for various areas like cloud assistance, it still remains a business challenge to track cyber security challenges from suppliers throughout your company's supply chain.
To reduce cybersecurity risks, your business should make sure the supplier you work with can be trusted on protecting the security of data, and services that they are given. In today's date, cyberattacks have become sophisticated, they don't attack the primary target but compromise the weakest link in the supply chain.
How to identify risks?
Most businesses use a manual approach for assessing their supplies, this includes spreadsheets, Word, or PDF questionnaires via email. However, it is a time-consuming process and cybersecurity risk in itself. Manually processing will make it a challenge for your business to have a clear overview of cybersecurity risks in the supply chain.
If the data isn't collected on a daily basis, suppliers not able to fill these requirements may go undetected. Even worse, the risks across the supply chain may leave your organization vulnerable to serious cybersecurity implications. If it happens, you're already too late.
A better approach for risk assessment
If the data isn't collected on a daily basis, suppliers not able to fill these requirements may go undetected. Even worse, the risks across the supply chain may leave your organization vulnerable to serious cybersecurity implications.
If it happens, you're already too late."A good framework for supplier assurance requires procurement teams, IT teams, and other departments to work together to ensure they understand each other’s domains, objectives, and responsibilities in terms of cybersecurity and regulatory compliance," reports Helpnet Security.