By Brittany Cotton
Supply chain was the word of 2023 due to the issues that were a result of labor shortages and increased demand. While no one wants to hear about the supply chain anymore, it’s set to become more disrupted. Disruptions rose to 46% in 2021, and experts fear that it will only get worse with cargo theft concerns. [1] There are changes you can make within your organization to prevent attacks from happening. It starts with securing your supply chain.
What is a Supply Chain?
A supply chain involves the goods and services that your organization provides to your customers. A series of processes are involved to fit customers’ needs. These processes involve many third-party channels and vendors that could affect the supply chain. Sometimes it can get affected by someone who hacks into the supply chain or shares your customers’ sensitive information.
Cybersecurity Threats To The Supply Chain
Cybersecurity threats are on the rise — especially when it involves the supply chain. Some of them include data breaches, malware attacks, piracy, and unauthorized access or malicious attempts to enter the backdoor.
Supply chain security involves minimizing these risks. Organizations have to be aware that the software they use can be prone to attacks. Since collaboration often includes other businesses, resellers, suppliers, and vendors, sensitive data can be shared.
5 Supply Chain Practices
This only gives you an overview of what to expect with your supply chain security. You need to have a detailed plan in place that suits the needs of your customers and organization. As you develop each of these approaches, each of these cybersecurity measures can help reduce cargo theft incidents.
1. Get Familiar With Your Data
You should get to know your data like the back of your hand. You need to know where your sensitive data is stored. Use classification and discovery tools to find these databases within your organization. Some will continue sensitive information like customer data, financial information, and medical records. Determine who has access to this data, how to protect it, and what security measures are in place to prevent a security breach.
2. Create a Detailed Security Program
Next, you should have a security program in place. With a detailed plan, your organization may know how to secure the supply chain. This easily starts with a document that includes the tasks and objectives for your organization’s policies, procedures, processes, and tools.
Assign each of your team members with specific responsibilities. Your partners should also have a clear understanding of what requirements they must follow when accessing your data.
3. Keep Third-Party Partners On Your Mind
Your third-party partners will grow as your organization grows. This increases your supply chain risks. It would help if you always kept them in mind. Connect with them to prevent risks such as cyber-attacks, hacking, and data breaches. From there, both of you can come up with a plan to prevent the financial risk and damage to your reputation.
4. Develop a Response Plan
This should give you an idea of creating a response plan that prevents these risks from happening. It’s about being prepared for potential security attacks. Document all the procedures in the event of a security attack. You should have a plan for cybersecurity risks, system shutdowns, and data breaches. You shouldn’t just write them and store them away. You should execute each of these plans to ensure they work.
5. Strengthen Your Data Management Plan
Now is a good time to improve your data management. There are things you can do to strengthen your supply chain, such as changing passwords and revising your previous password policies. Create difficult passwords that consist of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. You should also consider penetration testing, which detects vulnerabilities throughout the organization and IT infrastructure that are a risk to your supply chain.
Conclusion
The supply chain can be just as susceptible to attacks. To prevent threats, you need to follow through with these steps. These practices can help strengthen your supply chain organization and reduce the risks.