Software supply chain weaknesses are increasingly putting businesses at risk

News
By
published

Businesses often find unknown parties in their software supply chain

A graphic showing someone on a tablet working through a supply chain.
(Image credit: Shutterstock.com / TMLsPhotoG)

Software supply chains are weak and susceptible, and they are increasingly putting businesses at risk of dangerous cyberattacks, which could result in financial losses, reputational damage, regulator fines, and more, new research has claimed.

BlackBerry surveyed IT decision-makers and cybersecurity leaders in the UK, to gauge their stance on software supply chain cybersecurity in the public sector, and found half (51%) received a notification of either an attack, or a vulnerability, in their software supply chain, in the last year.

However at the same time, the respondents showed a high level of trust in their partners. More than half (58%) believe their software supplier’s cybersecurity policies are comparable or stronger (38%) than those they have implemented. Furthermore, 96% were confident their supplier was able to spot and prevent a vulnerability within their environment.

AI, staff shortages, and other woes

But this trust wa mostly based on nothing else than gut feeling, as less than half (47%) asked for confirmation of compliance with certification and Standard Operating Procedures, it was said.

Furthermore, just 38% asked for third-party audits, while 32% asked for evidence of internal security training. At the same time, half (51%) said they found unknown participants in their software supply chain whose practices they weren’t monitoring in the past.

The result is public knowledge - businesses are increasingly falling prey to cyberattacks. In fact, 42% of organizations take more than a week to recover from software supply chain attacks. Most of the time, they suffer financial loss (71%), data loss (67%), reputational damage (67%), operational impact (50%), or intellectual property loss (38%).

Software supply chain vulnerabilities led to one of the most devastating cyberattacks in recent history - the 2020 SolarWinds incident, which saw Russian hackers penetrate thousands of organizations globally through a poisoned update for a SolarWinds product.

More from TechRadar Pro

Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.