NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO SCALE BACK CYBER SECURITY

WAR IN UKRAINE MEANS SUPPLY CHAINS HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE CYBER-VULNERABLE, SO WHY ARE CYBERSECURITY BUDGETS BEING DECIMATED?

In this issue of Supply Chain among the hot topics under discussion is cybersecurity, particularly as it affects organisations with sizable supply chains.

Multinational companies often have tens of thousands of vendors in their value chain, and too often such companies are the entry point for malware, ransomware or denial of service attacks, which then work their way upstream or downstream to the larger organisation, which is usually the ultimate target.

We learn some hard home truths about cybersecurity from James McDowell, MD of BlueVoyant UK, whose platform detects and responds to cybersecurity incidents. McDowell says that, despite the war in Ukraine heightening the threats to supply chains from hackers, “the needle has barely moved on cybersecurity in the past three years”.

Internally, he says, the biggest cyber threats come from suppliers or other third parties who have access to an organisation's IT networks.

Externally, the biggest threat is posed by thirdparty organisations who perform a critical business process or deliver a key product to the first party.

McDowell says that too often cybersecurity measures are about “ticking a compliance box”, rather than “offering a picture of evolving risk that helps the business adapt strategically to the threat environment”.

This, he adds, is a situation compounded by inflation eating away at security budgets. He urges businesses to find the money to safeguard operations from “malicious actors”.

At a time of heightened risk, this is sound advice.

SEAN ASHCROFT sean.ashcroft@bizclikmedia.com