Biblio

Another risk posed by the limited number of available vendors is the threat of supply chain attacks. According to researchers at CrowdStrike on June 27, 2017 the destructive malware known as NotPetya was deployed using a legitimate software package employed by organizations operating in Ukraine. The attack used an update mechanism built into the software to provide updates and distribute them to the vendor’s customers. This same mechanism had been used a month earlier to deploy other ransomware attacks. Supply chain attacks exploit a trust relationship between software or hardware vendors and their customers. These attacks can be widespread targeting the entire trusted vendor’s customer base and are growing in frequency as well as sophistication.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) supply chain risk management (SCRM) is the process of identifying and mitigating risks in the manufacture and distribution of ICT products and services. While the Information Technology (IT) sector and the Communications sector face different supply chain risks, their mitigation strategies are similar. Both sectors emphasize having an end-to-end Cyber-SCRM program, continuously evaluating risks to vendor networks, and maintaining geographically-diverse and occasionally-redundant supply chains in the event of a manufacturer compromise.

Another risk posed by the limited number of available vendors is the threat of supply chain attacks. According to researchers at CrowdStrike on June 27, 2017 the destructive malware known as NotPetya was deployed using a legitimate software package employed by organizations operating in Ukraine. The attack used an update mechanism built into the software to provide updates and distribute them to the vendor’s customers. This same mechanism had been used a month earlier to deploy other ransomware attacks. Supply chain attacks exploit a trust relationship between software or hardware vendors and their customers. These attacks can be widespread targeting the entire trusted vendor’s customer base and are growing in frequency as well as sophistication.

The supply chains for advanced automobiles will continue to become increasingly complex. Furthermore, automotive OEMs will experience decreased control over the components and software implemented into their vehicles. These issues create risks to advanced vehicle technologies that must be addressed by a comprehensive and coordinated approach to end-to-end cybersecurity across the automotive supply chain.

This paper introduces Microsoft’s perspective on supply chain risk and the relationship of such risk to global trade in ICT products. It reviews the considerations that lead governments to express concerns about supply chain security and discusses the implications of some approaches to “solving the problem.” It points out the importance of having national approaches to supply chain risk management that are risk-based, transparent, flexible and reciprocal or standards-based.

The exploitation of key supply chains by foreign adversaries—especially when executed in concert with cyber intrusions and insider threat activities—represents a complex and growing threat to strategically important U.S. economic sectors and critical infrastructure. The increasing reliance on foreign-owned or controlled hardware, software, or services as well as the proliferation of networking technologies, including those associated with the Internet of Things, creates vulnerabilities in our nation’s supply chains. By exploiting these vulnerabilities, foreign adversaries could compromise the integrity, trustworthiness, and authenticity of products and services that underpin government and American industry, or even subvert and disrupt critical networks and systems, operations, products, and weapons platforms in a time of crisis. We must elevate the role of supply chain security in the acquisition process.

Cyber security is generally thought of as various types of security devices like firewalls, Web Application Firewall (WAF), IDS/IPS, SIEM, DLP etc. to safeguard network, applications and data. But what if, for example, the deployed security solutions have a bug inside? The latest example of this is exposing of a vulnerability in Lenovo notebooks. Lenovo notebooks are shipped with a program named “Superfish-Visual Discovery”, and recently a vulnerability known as Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) has been discovered in this software, so all the security controls installed in the notebooks like antivirus etc. cannot catch it, because it is the default shipped in the software. This is an example as to how important is to take not only networks but also each component of a supply chain into consideration.

Cyber security in the supply chain is a subset of supply chain security and is focused on the management of cyber security requirements for information technology systems, software and networks, which are driven by threats such as cyber-terrorism, malware, data theft and the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). Typical supply chain cyber security activities for minimizing risks include buying only from trusted vendors, disconnecting critical machines from outside networks, and educating users on the threats and protective measures they can take.