Product Update
Track & Manage your Supplier Risks
The major IT outage that impacted Microsoft Windows systems globally due to a Crowdstrike Falcon sensor update led to millions of computers displaying the "blue screen of death," disrupting services for airlines, banks, broadcasters, and companies in various other industries.
While initial fears that this could have been yet another supply chain cyber attack similar to Wannacry or NotPetya proved unfounded, incidents like these still pose similar challenges to security teams that need to quickly understand whether and how their critical suppliers might be affected, and coordinate their incident response.
In situations like these, human connections and communications are key. Find out why in this short blog.
The Microsoft outage had far-reaching effects beyond the immediately affected computer systems. With airports particularly hard hit, air traffic in the United States for example came to all but a grind, with serious supply chain implications. As Marco Forgione, director general of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, explains, “the global supply chain tends to work on a ‘just in time’ basis, so any delay will affect every link in the chain, leading to delays and backlog.”
But digital supply chains were equally impacted. This was indicated by David West, Vice President for Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft, who in a recent blog post pointed out that the “incident demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem - global cloud providers, software platforms, security vendors and other software vendors, and customers”.
Today’s interconnected nature of corporate and digital supply chains underscores the importance of incident response and disaster recovery. In situations like these, security teams must quickly understand the situation not only within their organisations, but also within their extended supply chain ecosystems in order to ensure business continuity.
However, the lack of a comprehensive supplier register can hinder effective incident response. Security teams often struggle to gather crucial information, such as supplier criticality, data handling practices, and data on their security controls to ascertain which of their suppliers might be affected and could pose a risk to them. This scramble for information from various departments, including procurement and compliance, costs valuable time.
A more significant issue, however, is the lack of direct contact points with security teams at suppliers. Risk assessments typically involve interactions with sales or procurement teams in suppliers during their onboarding processes, leaving security teams without direct links to their peers at supplier organisations. This disconnect complicates swift incident response and assessment.
The challenge for third-party risk management (TPRM) lies not so much in technical barriers but in the lack of human connections and communication. While technical innovations and automation can enhance TPRM efficiency, they cannot replace the value of established relationships. Building personal and trusted connections with security teams at suppliers and participating in information-sharing networks are crucial for effective incident response.|
Building strong personal relationships with security teams within supplier organisations can significantly benefit Third-party risk management teams. Some of the main benefits include:
With established personal relationships, the complexity of managing risk information decreases. Teams can navigate challenges more easily, as they are accustomed to communicating openly and effectively, which simplifies the process of risk information sharing and decision-making.
Risk Ledger's supply chain risk management platform addresses this common challenge by combining a security governance tool with a social network, similar to LinkedIn. On Risk ledger, security teams are continuously connected to their suppliers' security teams, fostering collaboration in mitigating supply chain risks. During the recent Microsoft Windows outage incident, Risk Ledger informed its network of over 7000 organisations, prompting nearly 2000 suppliers to respond with updates on their status and remediation efforts within less than 48 hours. This rapid information sharing enabled organisations to quickly assess the impact of the incident on their suppliers and allowed their security teams to collaborate with peers at their suppliers on resolving any issues.
Effective TPRM requires more than technical solutions; it necessitates strong and transparent personal relationships. Understanding that supply chain incidents impact all parties involved allows for combined efforts in mitigating risks and ensuring robust incident response and disaster recovery plans.
Stay tuned for our upcoming article on our emerging threats feature, designed to help organisations enhance their TPRM strategies and respond faster to incidents like these when they occur.
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