These days, everything’s connected, especially software, including ones your business relies on, whether you’ve installed that software locally or use it in the cloud. Naturally, protecting the process that creates and delivers your software is very important, and every step matters, from the tools developers use to how updates reach your computer. A breach in the chain can have severe consequences, as recently demonstrated by the global IT outage that happened last July, which brought down airlines, banks, and many other businesses. The culprit for the outage was an untested update pushed into production builds by the software supplier CrowdStrike, and since the company was a link in many software supply chains, many people suffered from the outage. So, what can you do to avoid a similar supply chain-related issue?
The Rise of Complexity and Interdependence
Modern software tends to rely on multiple components to function. These components can include open-source libraries, third-party APIs, and cloud services. Unfortunately, each component introduces potential vulnerabilities, so ensuring the security of each part is essential to maintaining system integrity. Additionally, modern systems tend to be highly interconnected, so a single vulnerability in one part of the supply chain can affect many systems. For example, a compromised library will impact every application that uses it. Finally, continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) practices are now common. CI/CD involves frequent updates and software integrations to speed up development. However, it also increases the risk of introducing vulnerabilities, so securing the CI/CD pipeline is crucial to prevent the introduction of malicious code.
The Rise of Cyber Threats
Cyber attackers are increasingly targeting the software supply chain, as infiltrating trusted software can grant them access to wider networks. These supply chain attacks are often more effective than direct attacks on well-defended systems. To accomplish these supply chain attacks, hackers use sophisticated techniques that are difficult to detect and mitigate, so a robust and proactive security posture is necessary to defend against them. Becoming the victim of an attack can result in significant financial and reputational damage from regulatory fines, legal costs, and loss of customer trust. Dealing with all the hassle of recovering from a breach would be a much longer and more expensive process than proactively securing your supply chain.
The Rise of Regulatory Requirements
Many industries these days have strict compliance standards for software security, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). Failure to meet compliance will result in severe penalties. Securing your supply chain is a critical step to meet these regulatory requirements that often require robust vendor risk management. Companies must ensure that their suppliers adhere to security best practices and meet their own compliance standards. This is especially important for industries like finance and healthcare, where data breaches can have serious consequences for many people.
Steps to Secure Your Software Supply Chain
Ensure Least Privilege
All the resources across your supply chain should use least privilege access, where they only have access to the parts of your network that they need to perform their role. Least privilege helps limit the scope of damage if an element of the supply chain is compromised.
Do Phased Update Rollouts
Keep all software components updated with the latest security patches, but don’t update all systems simultaneously. Apply patches and updates to a few systems first, and then test them to ensure they aren’t negatively affected. If everything works as intended, roll out the update more widely.
Conduct Security Audits
Perform regular security audits of the supply chain, assessing the security measures of all vendors and partners. Identifying and addressing any weaknesses or gaps in security practices is vital. The point of audits is to help ensure ongoing compliance with security standards by finding where your security falls short.
Use Secure Development Practices
Adopt secure development practices such as code reviews, static analysis, and penetration testing to reduce vulnerabilities. Ensure that security is integrated into the development lifecycle from the start.
Monitor for Threats
Employ continuous monitoring for threats and anomalies across your network. Tools like intrusion detection systems (IDS), as well as security information and event management (SIEM) systems, help detect and respond to potential threats in real-time.
Educate and Train Staff
Cybersecurity can only work if users allow it to work by following cybersecurity practices. So, educate and train staff on supply chain security, regularly recurring security training is important to ensure your team continually follows cybersecurity best practices. Awareness and training help ensure that everyone understands their role in maintaining security.
Securing your software supply chain is not an option; it is a necessity for any modern business. A breach or outage can have severe financial and operational consequences that many businesses are unable to recover from.