How Can The Defense Industrial Sector Protect Against Cybersecurity Threats In Supply Chain?

HOW CAN THE DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE BETTER PROTECT AGAINST CYBERSECURITY WEAKNESSES IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN?

by Thomas Lind, Co-Head of Strategic Intelligence, BlueVoyant

Securing the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) is a key national security objective of the United States. Recent analysis by BlueVoyant shows that cybersecurity weaknesses in the supply chain are abundant, with known critical vulnerabilities affecting over half of the supply chain. Securing the DIB is not only a pressing and critical issue for greater national security: it is also eminently possible, and with the right combination of CMMC regulations, cybersecurity monitoring, and support from government, the DIB can be made much stronger and resilient than it is now.

This issue is critical. Businesses in the DIB are high-value targets for nation-state adversaries and other cybercriminals. Today, the news is awash with examples of how these third-party attack strategies have been devastatingly effective: in the last year alone, cyber attacks exploiting Microsoft Exchange, F5, Pulse Secure, and, of course, SolarWinds have had catastrophic impacts on U.S. defense networks. At the same time, opportunistic ransomware attacks have also risen in frequency and impact, and just last year we reported attacks on US contractors who had been hit by the Babuk, Ryuk, maze and DoppelPaymer ransomware groups.

See Defense Cybersecurity Page 52

Tom Lind is Co-Head of Strategic Intelligence at BlueVoyant. Tom founded the company's strategic intelligence and reporting team and now leads a firm-wide function focused on threat analysis and research. Prior to joining BlueVoyant, Tom was the Cybersecurity Fellow at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute for War and Peace, where he carried out research on behalf of the U.S. DoD, DoE, and other bodies on cybersecurity threats and policy. Before that he spent 8 years as a consultant based in Europe, working with governments in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East on issues related to energy and security. He is a member of the New York Cyber Task Force, a policy association created as part of the Congressional Solarium Commission. He is the author of numerous reports and frequently speaks on issues related to cybersecurity and national defense policy. He holds a BA (Hons) from Oxford University and two masters: one from Columbia SIPA and one from Sciences Po in Paris.

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