Contents
Introduction
Over the last decade, businesses have chased efficiency relentlessly.
Move to the cloud. Outsource IT. Adopt SaaS. Let someone else deal with the headaches.
On paper, it sounds brilliant. In practice? It’s one of the biggest blind spots in modern cybersecurity.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: you can outsource services, but you cannot outsource risk.
When a supplier, SaaS platform, or IT partner gets breached, your business picks up the pieces. Your operations suffer. Your customers are affected. Your name hits the headlines. Your reputation takes the damage, as well as theirs.
Let’s explore why supply chain attacks are surging, how real companies are facing the consequences, and what you can actually do about it.
Why Supply Chain Cyber Attacks Are On The Rise
Two major forces are driving the explosion.
Outsourcing everything has become standard practice.
Organisations are handing over critical systems at record levels. Customer data. Case management. Accounting. IT help desks. Entire business functions.
But here’s what gets missed: when you give a third party control of a critical function, your risk isn’t reduced, but your visibility is.
Most businesses assume their supplier has bulletproof security. But assumptions aren’t protection. When the supplier slips up, you’re also in the firing line.
Attackers have changed their strategy.
We’re seeing a new breed of attacker: the APTeen. Not nation states or elite professionals. Teenagers and young adults with high skill, massive egos, and zero fear.
They want disruption. They want notoriety. They want headlines.
What better way to grab global attention than taking down a well-known business by hitting one of their suppliers? It’s like knocking out a power station by flipping one tiny switch in a remote shed.
Attackers no longer target the biggest wall. They find the smallest unlocked door.
Real Examples: When Supply Chains Break Down
Jaguar Land Rover’s production shutdown perfectly illustrates how fragile supply chains have become.
While full details remain undisclosed, cyber experts strongly suspect the breach didn’t start at JLR directly but through one of their third-party service providers.
Production lines halted. Operations froze. Revenue paused. And who paid the price? Not just the initially compromised supplier, but JLR, and all of their suppliers as well.
This pattern repeats constantly across UK businesses. If your outsourced provider gets something wrong, it impacts you both.
You cannot outsource accountability.
Why Your Supplier’s Security Problems Become Your Business Problems
Supply chain attacks work because of three brutal realities:
1. Your security is only as strong as your weakest supplier
Your business might be locked down tight, but if your supplier isn’t, your risk level defaults to theirs. Your systems, data, operations, and customers instantly inherit their vulnerabilities.
2. Suppliers rarely take responsibility for the fallout
When they get breached, they apologise, review processes, and patch their mistakes.
Meanwhile, you deal with angry customers, lost revenue, downtime, brand damage, and operational chaos. You carry the weight. They carry on.
3. Most businesses never actually test their suppliers
A shocking number of organisations say: “The supplier told me their system was secure” or “The SaaS platform said they’ve been pen tested.”
But if their testing is outdated, low quality, incomplete, or irrelevant to your setup, your business is still exposed. You wouldn’t buy a car just because the dealership said it was safe. You’d test it, check it, inspect it.
Treat suppliers the same way. Learn more about why checkbox security fails your business.
Why Supply Chain Attacks Hit So Hard
Supply chain attacks are devastating because they strike where businesses are blind.
You can’t defend what you can’t see. You can’t monitor systems that don’t belong to you. And you can’t patch vulnerabilities in a supplier’s infrastructure.
This creates the perfect storm:
- No visibility
- No internal monitoring
- No testing
- No direct control
- High impact
- Low noise
It’s the easiest way to cause maximum disruption with minimum effort.
How To Actually Protect Your Business From Supply Chain Attacks
Here’s the good news: you can significantly reduce your exposure. You just need the right approach.
Test Your Third-Party Systems, Not Just Your Own
Your suppliers will tell you they’re secure. Your job is to verify, not trust.
If your business relies on case management systems, customer platforms, CRM, cloud storage, outsourced IT, payroll systems, or industry-specific SaaS platforms, you should acquire tangible proof from your supplier that those systems have been thoroughly tested.
Since it’s illegal under the Computer Misuse Act to pen test someone else’s system without their permission, thorough due diligence is a must.
Their vulnerabilities are your vulnerabilities. Discover more about external attack surface testing and why scope matters.
Stop Assuming Outsourced Equals Risk-Free
A supplier is not a firewall. A supplier is not a shield. A supplier is not a scapegoat.
Build a clear supplier risk process:
- Cyber due diligence
- Contractual security requirements
- Mandatory breach reporting obligations
- Proof of testing
- Proof of remediation
Anything less is guesswork.
Test The Integrations As Much As The Systems
The way your systems connect is often where attackers slip in.
APTeens particularly love shared credentials, weak API keys, misconfigured cloud access, old internal integrations, and forgotten third-party access.
Testing the edges is just as important as testing the core. Find out more about what an attack surface assessment involves.
Build A Resilience Mindset
Cybersecurity isn’t about firewalls and antivirus anymore.
It’s about monitoring, preparedness, response, recovery, supplier control, and business continuity. You don’t rise to the level of your security tools. You fall to the level of your weakest supplier.
That’s why regular vulnerability assessments are essential and retesting after fixes is crucial.
Supply Chain Security Is The New Frontline
Businesses are more connected than ever. So are attackers.
Your suppliers are part of your organisation now, whether you like it or not. Their vulnerabilities can take you offline. Their mistakes can leak your data. Their failures can shut down your business.
The era of blind trust is over. The era of supply chain due diligence has begun.
If you don’t test your suppliers, attackers will do it for you.