In just a few weeks, our economic, political, and business processes have been completely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic – not to mention the social and personal costs that are still impossible to calculate.
Unfortunately, there is one more threat we all need to be aware of right now – cyberattacks. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, recently warned that cybercrime in the EU has increased due to the coronavirus outbreak as bad actors take advantage of our health fears, remote working habits, and increased time spent online.
"They follow us online and exploit our concerns about the coronavirus. Our fear becomes their business opportunity" Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President
Meanwhile, the internal market European commissioner Thierry Breton is consulting with telecom operators how to protect EU networks against cyberattacks. According to the commission, the European network of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) have also raised the level of alert, urging a strong cyber resilience during this specific period. This guidance from a central authority is helpful, but we all need to go further to stay secure and protect our supply chains from this latest wave of cyberattacks.
The challenge that most procurement teams face today is how to quickly and effectively understand if there are certain suppliers in their supply chain that are at risk than others. Cyberattackers are extremely skilled at rapidly identifying the weakest link in a supply chain – we need to be able to match (or preferably exceed) that speed to remediate supplier issues before they can be exploited.
So, what’s stopping procurement teams from moving ahead?
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Risk #1: Lack of visibility into suppliers’ digital risk exposure beyond tier one of the supply chain
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Risk #2: Current Supplier Onboarding, Information Management and Relationship Management systems rely on one-off questionnaires with security information that has not been independently verified
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Risk #3: Any insights into supplier cybersecurity standards is outdated and no longer relevant
We believe that rather than relying on suppliers to provide the right insights into their security standards, a collaborative approach sets a more constructive tone by providing a source of information which may deliver the right insights back to suppliers for them to act on.
Darkbeam’s simple four step SAVE approach to supply chain digital risk management is here to help procurement teams looking for cybersecurity visibility:
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Score: Score and monitor the digital risk exposure of all suppliers. Load up a list of suppliers into the Darkbeam platform and get automated results the same day.
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Assess: Intuitive dashboards visualise the entire supply chain and give at-a-glance clarity into your highest risk suppliers.
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Validate: Drill-down functionality enables easy access to the granular detail behind each score. These comprehensive reports are presented in an easy to understand, actionable format so suppliers can act quickly to close security gaps.
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Engage: User-friendly information can be immediately shared with suppliers to strengthen your existing vendor engagement and collaboration processes.
As procurement teams use this SAVE process to automate and understand the digital risk of their organisation’s supply chain, they take a material step towards reducing risk across the wider business.
At Darkbeam, we’re committed to delivering these risk mitigation capabilities at a cost-effective price point in a way that seamlessly integrates into your existing procurement processes. Get in touch today to find out more.