06/28/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/28/2024 06:08
A supply chain attack occurs when a bad actor gains access to an organization's people and data by compromising a vendor or business partner. Let's think of this type of attack as if it was a dinner party. You invite your close friends over and hire a catering company that you know and trust to cook the meal. However, neither you nor the caterer were aware that one of the waiters serving your guests stole the key to your house and made a copy. You throw a lovely party, and your friends rave about the food, and everyone goes home. But later that week you come home to find all your valuables missing.
To find out who broke into your home, you go through the nanny cam you have hidden in your child's stuffed animal. That's when you spot the waiter roaming through your house when you were away. In this story, the caterer is the compromised link in the supply chain. Similar to a dinner party, companies need to trust all participants in the digital supply chain because a risk to a supplier can risk the entire system - just like one waiter exploited the trust between the caterer and the client.
Supply chain attacks can be understandably concerning for those in charge of cybersecurity within an organization. According to Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, breaches due to supply chain attacks rose from 9% to 15%, a 68% year-over-year increase. Even if you are diligent about protecting all your people, devices, applications, and networks, you have very little control or visibility into a bad actor attacking an external organization.
There are different ways that attackers can execute supply chain attacks. They can plant malicious hardware that is shipped to customers. They can inject bad code into software updates and packages that are installed by unsuspecting users. Or attackers can breach third-party services, like a managed service provider, or HVAC vendor, and use that access to attack their customers.
The supply chain attacks that you see in the headlines are usually the ones that are rather large, and the victim organization has little control over. However, the more common compromises happen when attackers first target smaller companies (suppliers) with the goal to get to their customers (real targets). Let's consider the following example of a law firm that leads to a compromised client(s):
Cisco's User Protection Suite provides the breadth of coverage your organization needs to feel confident that you can protect your users and resources from supply chain attacks. The User Suite provides email and identity protection, plus safe application access, all on a secure endpoint. Now let's think about how a supply chain attack would be prevented at key moments:
The cybersecurity threat landscape can be overwhelming. There are many different types of attacks targeting users who just want to focus on their job. Our goal with the User Protection Suite is to empower users to be their most productive, without worrying about breaches. Let users get to work and we'll handle the security risks to protect your organization from the top threats.
To learn more about how the User Protection Suite can protect your organization today, see the Cisco User Protection Suite webpage and connect with an expert today.
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