The Log4j vulnerability in 2021 served as a wake-up call for how vulnerable today’s supply chains are. Four years later, this remains apparent amid the recent incident at F5 which has impacted a number of businesses globally. These types of attacks continue to expose the increasingly sophisticated cyber threats that exist as a result of a growingly complex landscape.

Third-party ecosystems are now one of the most profitable attack avenues as when one supplier is compromised, the effects can quickly ripple through entire industries. All partners are then exposed to fallbacks like revenue loss, reputational damage and operational disruption.

Why Traditional Risk Management Falls Short

Legacy risk management approaches can’t keep up with modern threats. Things like static assessments and compliance audits only provide a snapshot of risk, and many security professionals don’t have the necessary visibility into the security posture of their partners, creating blind spots for attackers to easily exploit.

Additionally, legacy frameworks don’t account for shifts in threat actor behavior. For example, attackers increasingly use AI tools to boost their capabilities or find vulnerabilities within their target’s environments. They also continue exploiting legacy systems that may have outdated security measures or compromised credentials as another path of entry. These new (and familiar) tactics represent a class and speed of threats that many organizations’ defense and evaluation plans have not fully prepared for with their original security investments.

Risk management remains mostly reactive rather than proactive, leaving organizations vulnerable when partners are compromised. Traditional models are inadequate against the sophistication of today’s attackers, especially those who target supply chains.

Attackers Exploiting Trusted Relationships

Attackers are focusing more on supply chain relationships and third-party integrations as a way to compromise multiple organizations at once. Their approach is straightforward: compromise one system, and then quickly access an entire ecosystem.

This tactic has been evident in recent incidents. For example, the Collins Aerospace MUSE software attack disrupted operations at several European airports, while campaigns targeting Salesforce customers spread through tools like Salesloft Drift. Similarly, the ShinyHunters ransomware group exploited Salesforce CRM, causing widespread effects across various enterprises, including Workday.

Attackers treat vendors and partners as backdoors and use AI-driven tools to launch targeted social engineering and phishing campaigns. Using AI, attackers coordinate attacks more effectively by quickly finding vulnerable users, then personalizing attacks to improve their ROI.

Identity compromise is particularly risky and a rapidly emerging entry point for threats. A stolen credential can easily bypass traditional defenses, opening access to multiple downstream systems and targets. Once past perimeter defense, we’re seeing that attackers can navigate through networks faster than ever through software vulnerabilities, lateral movement and identity theft. If they’re successful in breaching one partner, they can then move onto targeting other integrations, partners and customers.

Steps for Improving Resilience and Visibility

Today’s supply chain defenses need a proactive and collaborative approach. Security leaders cannot underestimate the power of continuous monitoring across their partnerships. For example, sharing threat intelligence helps identify potential risks before they become more serious incidents. This is essential in ensuring that operations continue and maintaining trust across stakeholders.

Security is a shared responsibility, and collaborating with partners on responses and procedures is critical. A proactive approach to threat detection, backed by AI prioritization, for example, can help address increasing attacks like social engineering by identifying behaviors that differ from the norm of a specific user, device, or system. These solutions are also valuable in identifying unauthorized access, lateral movements, or data filtration attempts, so that organizations can keep better pace with the threat landscape.

From a technical perspective, network detection and response provide better visibility to monitor traffic patterns and lateral movements that may indicate a partner has fallen victim to an attack. Additionally, developing an incident response playbook specifically for third-party attacks is critical. To address the likely ripple effects, it should include preventive measures, strategies for containment and recovery plans.

The Importance of Shared Defenses

Attacks on supply chains are not only here to stay, but they are also increasing. Amid evolving threats, security leaders must embrace modern tactics to replace traditional defenses. No organization can afford to fall behind in visibility into the threat landscape and better collaboration across partner networks.

It’s also important for leaders to adopt a shared defense mindset. By adopting continuous monitoring, robust threat detection capabilities, and better sharing of threat intelligence, they can develop a more proactive approach to increasing supply chain attacks. This not only protects individual organizations but improves the security hygiene of the entire supply chain.