As supply chain attacks become an increasingly common type of cyberattack, cybersecurity professionals are pressured to come up with new, more powerful solutions to combat this ongoing threat to individuals and organizations across the world.

However, before being able to develop efficient defenses against cyberattacks, we must figure out why supply chain attacks are on the rise and learn from our past mistakes.

What Are Supply Chain Attacks?

A supply chain attack is a type of cyberattack that targets organizations by seeking weak links in their supply chain, such as third-party software, hardware, and services. Even if an organization itself has strong cybersecurity, there are usually insecure software suppliers or other third parties that can be used as a backdoor to bypass an organization's security systems.

In short, an attacker finds an easy target and takes advantage of the trusted relationship between parties inside a supply chain. Usually, they infect the supplier’s software with malware to get unauthorized access to the supply chain, and then they spread malware across the network. As you suspect, this can cause large-scale data breaches.

Unfortunately, since the compromised components in a successful supply chain attack spread like wildfire, these types of cyberattacks are hard to detect. If you suspect your sensitive data has been compromised, there are ways you can protect yourself after a data breach, but you’ll have to act swiftly.

Why Supply Chain Attacks Are Increasing

What makes supply chain attacks particularly perilous is the fact that even the slightest crack in security or the smallest change could have serious consequences. For instance, if a single piece of code gets compromised, the entire supply chain could suffer. Even trusted software isn’t safe from these types of attacks since even the most trusted software has its weaknesses, and attackers are more than willing to exploit them.

Now, let’s look at some of the primary reasons why supply chain attacks are on the rise.

1. Vulnerabilities in Open Source Software

While open source software comes with superb benefits to organizations (from flexibility and transparency to cost-cutting), its vulnerabilities pose serious risks to app security. Since anyone can inspect, improve, or otherwise modify open source software, this makes it open to supply chain attacks.

Cybercriminals could easily exploit its vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to the organization’s systems, where they could steal sensitive data or sabotage software or the entire system.

2. Vendor-Supplied Software

As you can already guess, reliance on third-party apps can raise the risk of network cyberattacks and network-level security threats. If a third-party app gets hacked, cybercriminals could get their hands on sensitive data from all those who are currently using it.

Plus, the app may not have the same privacy protections the organization has, which means the user data could be shared with third parties without their consent—or worse, it could be sold to advertisers for a quick buck.

3. More Sophisticated Malware

Whether we’re talking about ransomware, spyware, or control-and-command attack, malicious software (aka malware) is becoming more sophisticated—even ChatGPT is being used for malware creation.

As malware evolves, it’s getting harder to detect it within a supply chain as it can disguise itself as a secure app or a legitimate software update.

4. Insider Threats Or Human Error

With supply chain attacks, insider threats don’t stop at the organization’s employees but also include all third parties the organization cooperates with. To counter this type of threat, it’s critical to apply strict access control and user activity monitoring. Although these attacks are relatively rare, their consequences could be catastrophic for an organization.

The human error factor can’t be completely eliminated, but it can be minimized with proper security practices, such as promoting awareness about supply chain issues and providing training for the employees. After all, a human error can be something as simple as clicking on a wrong link in an email and unknowingly downloading malware to spy on you and steal your data.

5. Non-Existent Encryption

While trusting business partners, third-party providers, employees, and end-users is a pretty polite thing to do, it won’t do much for the security of the organization. For sensitive data within an organization to be secure, end-to-end encryption is a must-have.

With strong encryption at your side, cybercriminals will have trouble establishing the backdoor for data exfiltration during a supply chain attack. In short, all your private data will stay private.

6. Zero-Trust Is Easier Said Than Done

A zero-trust model does not assume that users and apps are trustworthy by default, but requires authentication before allowing access to data and other IT assets. By blocking unauthorized activities within a network, a zero-trust framework can reduce supply chain attacks.

However, another thing the zero-trust framework could reduce is productivity, which is why many organizations are slow to adopt it. Moreover, there is also a problem of compliance with existing security systems, as well as time and costs that could set small organizations back.

Can We Reduce Supply Chain Security Risks?

Yes, we can, although it’s not as simple as it may seem. In most cases, supply chain attacks are far-reaching, well-researched, and well-resourced operations. They also exploit the trust between business partners and third-party software providers, which makes these types of attacks difficult to prevent and detect before damage is done.

But we can start by applying the zero-trust model (involving multi-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption) as well as strengthening security systems and conducting regular security audits. Also, never underestimate what employee training can do for the overall security of an organization.