After the recent break-in at a U.S. government agency, the whole world began to think more about better supply chain security. While this is not a new kind of attack, and attackers have long practiced hacking large corporations through digital or physical supply chains, it has recently begun to take a steeper turn. At the beginning of 2018, these attacks began to increase, because it’s often the case that an organization’s suppliers or partners are its weakest point, and that’s how hackers get into its system. In this article, we will give some tips to secure your supply chain.
Protect privileged access
To keep your business afloat, you need to make sure you secure every part of your supply chain. This is even more necessary nowadays, given the speed with which cybercriminals are coming up with new ways to get at your data.
Because of this, and the recent cyberattack on the U.S. government, there has been endless talk about this topic and attempts to resolve the situation. In the end, most businesses concluded that they should reduce external vendors’ access to sensitive company data, and you couldn’t agree more that it’s a smart move.
The fact is that privileged accounts are a prime target for hacker attacks, so keeping them private should be a priority for all organizations. If you take steps in this direction you will prevent intruders from entering your organization through the supply chain.
Using a defense-in-depth approach
Wise users of antivirus software and other security methods understand that none of these tools offer a 100% guarantee of protection, especially in the face of new cyberattack techniques. But according to statistics from the U.K. and the U.S., nearly half of small and medium-sized businesses are not protected from cyberattacks at all.
They do not do so because they operate under the “assumption of a breach” principle, and build their defenses according to the methods of attack. To do this, however, you must have layered defense programs in place.
Consistent application of least privilege everywhere
Another tip to protect the supply chain would be to use the least privileged method. When you disable unnecessary privileges and permissions you automatically reduce the chance of a cyber-attack somehow affecting you.
PoLP operates in a way that gives you only a minimum level of access that will be sufficient to perform your duties well. This principle is one of the most important ways for companies to secure important information and assets. PoLP can also be used with application systems and connected devices.
This method greatly reduces the field of attack on the organization and the chances of unwanted viruses spreading.
Monitoring for theft of privileged credentials
With monitoring, your company will have a better chance of recognizing suspicious behavior patterns of unauthorized files and responding to them quickly. This makes the theft of your data almost impossible. Keeping track of activity in your privileged data will also help improve your security ecosystem and create an insurmountable barrier for attackers.
In today’s world, when the security of your business is threatened, entrepreneurs are required to react quickly. Strengthen your security measures to safeguard one of your company’s most vulnerable points: the supply chain.