In Preventing Cyber Attacks, Think Supply Chain

A column published in the Wall Street Journal last week urged businesses to approach risk around cybersecurity as a supply chain issue.

Research suggests that over 60 percent of data breaches are linked to third-party vendors, which means organizations that focus only on securing their own networks offer backdoor access to a wealth of customer and product information.

Managing these vulnerabilities requires companies to collaborate with key supply-chain partners in ways such as jointly assessing risks in the supply chain and coordinating investments in safeguards. Writers offered four fundamentals:

• Understand the risks;
• Map the end-to-end supply chain;
• Model the likelihood and impact of relevant risks; and
• Coordinate investments to protect the entire supply chain.
• See the article at the Association’s Twitter feed.