Why cybersecurity is important for your supply chain

If you haven't updated your organization's cybersecurity posture yet — it's time to consider it. Supply chains are a valuable asset that malicious actors view as high priority targets as they are a central backbone to any company. Furthermore, large supply chain organizations are viewed by nation state-level cyberwarfare organizations as force multipliers for their attacks, helping them cause chaos on a widespread level. The risk of cyberattack on your organization's supply chain is only going to increase from this point forward as cybercriminals become more advanced and bold in their attacks.

Any company can be affected by cyber threats

While cyberattacks bringing supply chains to a halt isn't a new idea, Maersk and FedEx were famously shut down by the NotPetya attacks that struck the companies' holdings in Europe, as well as other organizations, for billions of dollars' worth of damage. Many business leaders are predicting even more catastrophic attacks to happen worldwide in the wake of the global instability we are facing heading into 2023.

A World Economic Forum report has recently found that 93% of cybersecurity experts and 86% of business leaders believe that an incredibly damaging cyberattack could happen within two years. This is a cause for concern for any organization running its own supply chain, or that of others — as it could cause lost business and general confusion for long periods of time.

As the supply chain space has become more digitized and reliant on technology, it has also ramped up the levels of risk that it faces. Each tool your organization uses can be compromised and could lead to your network facing serious malware, spyware or ransomware issues. Should this happen, your organization could face a loss in delivery speed, an inability to properly ship products or track those shipments and a loss of trust from your customers. Luckily for your business, there are some best practices that can be followed to mitigate the risks that you face.

Making sure your supply chain is more secure

With only 21% of supply chain executives believing that their supply chains are highly resistant to cyber threats, the time to start updating your security protocols is now. In order to get your security posture in line with what it should be, there is one main step that you should consider to ensure your company is adequately protected.

Adopt a cybersecurity framework

The first thing your organization should do is find and adopt a cybersecurity standard recommended by a governing body. A clear example of this would be the NIST framework ,which provides strong controls for organizations as well as reporting practices and requirements for a solid cybersecurity posture. These frameworks are strong tools for any IT professional to have a clear understanding of what they need to do, and how to do it — it's also very helpful that these standards are reasonably strong against cyber threats.