Undoubtedly, 2021 was a unique year in the history of the cybersecurity industry. It was also a year of opportunities to find innovative solutions for never-before-seen cybersecurity issues. Industry observers are eagerly waiting to see what the new year will unfold in terms of challenges and opportunities.
Why Can’t Supply Chain Attacks Be Ignored in 2022?
Experts firmly believe that the year 2022 will witness several cybersecurity attacks on software supply chains getting commoditized.
Hacking business supply chains would surely be a key goal for cybercriminals. This is because gaining access to an enterprise that provides services to several other enterprises makes it possible to arrive at potential ways into several targets all at once.
Supply chain cyber-attacks are not uncommon. In fact, recent years have seen an increase in the number of cases of cyberattacks on the supply chains. Hackers are getting attracted by the effectiveness of such attacks as successful attempts can even lead to the collapse of an enterprise’s overall software supply services. In other words, cybercriminals will be using these supply chain attacks with the aim to cause maximum damage.
In fact, we can expect the situation to worsen in the current year. IT experts confirm that the time is ideal for cybersecurity experts and policymakers to intervene and take urgent corrective measures. The disciplinary approaches should be anchored on preventing and responding to probable supply chain attacks now and in the future.
Why Are Supply Chain Attacks Different?
Supply chain cyber-attacks require an in-depth analysis and may take several weeks or months to find success. The last few years have unearthed several such attacks that mostly went unnoticed for a significant period of time. However, these attacks may be expensive from an attacker’s point of view. As a result, attackers need to plan and sort such attacks ahead of the proposed time of the attack.
Reports and surveys on supply chain software attacks confirm that an enterprise might still be vulnerable to supply chain attacks even when its own defense might be adequate in preventing several other episodes.
The impact of successful supply chain attacks might have far-reaching effects due to the ever-increasing complexities and interdependencies of the technologies employed. Besides the possible losses to the attacked enterprises and third parties, security experts would be worried about the possibility of exfiltrated information. Such a development can even lead to national security concerns and geopolitical concerns.
Corrective Measures:
As the possibility of complicated supply chain attacks are predicted to increase in 2022, expert suggestions on possible corrective actions are also available to refer to. Here are some of the expert suggestions:
Talking about basics, it is critical to ensure that the infrastructure utilized to design, manufacture, develop and even deliver services, components, or products need to be in accordance with cybersecurity practices. Implementing proper support, maintenance, and product development processes is also necessary. Constant monitoring of security vulnerabilities should be made a continuous part of the threat management portfolio.