Supply Chain Attacks: Insider Threats That Are Often Ignored

Making sure that your business network and data is safe from attacks means making sure that you’re monitoring your own employees because insider attacks are a real threat in any type of business. However, it’s not just your employees that you need to worry about. If you use service providers or vendors of any kind, you also have to worry about supply chain attacks. Take a look at what you need to know about supply chain attacks and what you can do to prevent them. 

What Is a Supply Chain Attack?

Monitoring your network is important, but it’s also important to know that third-party vendors and service providers are using safe software and systems. 

A supply chain attack is what occurs when, instead of attacking a business directly, an attacker uses their access to a service provider or vendor to attack another business. 

One of the best-known examples of a supply chain attack is the 2013 Target customer data breach. In that event, the attackers were able to access Target by first obtaining stolen credentials from an HVAC vendor that serviced Target stores. With those credentials, they were able to access Target’s system and gain entrance to the systems where the retailer stored customer data. 

Why Supply Chain Attacks Are On the Rise

Unfortunately, supply chain attacks are increasing, and they will probably continue to do so. There are a few reasons why supply chain attacks are becoming more of a threat than they used to be. 

For one thing, a supply chain attack has a larger return on investment than other types of attack. By targeting one vendor, a hacker can gain access to multiple businesses serviced by that vendor. Supply chain attacks are also more difficult to detect than some other types of attacks since they’re often accomplished by adding backdoor access to otherwise safe and legitimate software, so it’s not immediately obvious that the software is compromised. 

How To Prevent Supply Chain Attacks

Use monitoring software to keep an eye out for red flags that a vendor’s software is compromised. 

Since supply chain attacks are not going to disappear on their own, it’s important to be on the watch for these kinds of attacks and implement best practices to prevent them. There are a few things that you should be doing in order to minimize your company’s risk of supply chain attacks. 

• Establish boundaries. It’s important that you make sure that vendor access is strictly limited to the parts of your network that they absolutely need to access. Any attempts to access off-limits parts of the networks are red flags that the vendor is compromised. 
• Limit installations. Third parties should not be able to install unapproved software onto company machines and devices. Freeware is especially likely to be compromised. It’s worth spending more in order to ensure that you only install approved software that is known to be safe. 
• Use monitoring technology. It’s important to know what is going on inside your system. Monitoring software can help alert you to signs that something is wrong before things get out of hand. 
• Ask questions about vendor security. Don’t assume that a vendor is necessarily aware of the risks of supply chain attacks. Before allowing a vendor or service provider access to your system, ask questions to ensure that they’re knowledgeable about security risks and that they have a disaster recovery plan. 

Employee monitoring software can help you stay aware of what’s going on in your system and protect your company’s network and data. To find out more about how employee monitoring software can work for you, start your free 7-day trial.