We have all heard of the growing range of cyber threats caused by internal bad actors and global cyber criminals, but what about the potential risks that emerge when businesses collaborate with each other to establish a global supply chain? To streamline processes and drive efficiency, this often involves different organisations legitimately connecting to third party suppliers in some way. This might involve a simple Dropbox folder to share files, a virtual collaboration “room”, a VPN or private WAN connection… The list goes on. But whatever the preferred platform for a project, we must consider the potential security impact and proactively work to mitigate any risk.
By sharing critical - often, sensitive - information in this way, we are implicitly trusting not only the third-party organisation, but also everyone that works within it, whether they’re directly connected to the project or not, to behave ethically and follow current cyber best practice. But whilst organisation ‘A’ may have a robust staff vetting process, supplier organisation ‘B’ may not. This presents a real problem, as - to borrow an old cliché - a chain is only as strong as its weakest link!
So, how can you effectively do business on a global scale in this high-threat cyber landscape without leaving the metaphorical side-door open?
