CSIA 350 - Cybersecurity and Industry: Supply Chain Risk Analysis

This project delves into the critical issue of supply chain risk within the cybersecurity industry. It examines the vulnerabilities associated with global supply chains, including risks related to country of origin, shipment accuracy, physical security, internal processes, and social responsibilities. The project highlights the importance of due diligence, outlining key steps for effective vendor assessment and risk mitigation. It also explores best practices for managing supply chain risks, such as incorporating security requirements in contracts and closely monitoring vendor performance. The analysis incorporates real-world examples and provides insights into the challenges faced by businesses in securing their supply chains against cyber threats. The project emphasizes the need for proactive measures to protect against data breaches, counterfeit components, and other supply chain disruptions, ultimately contributing to a more secure and resilient cybersecurity ecosystem.

Running head: Supply Chain
Supply Chain
Name of the student
Course name
Course ID

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Supply Chain
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Supply chain risks......................................................................................................................3
Due Diligence section................................................................................................................5
Best practice section...................................................................................................................7
Summary and Conclusion..........................................................................................................8
Reference list..............................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Manufacturing supply chain is basically playing a key role in identifying the modern
technologies that will be vital in the development of modern business. Diverse industries in
the form of automobile, pharmaceuticals, oil & gas and food & beverage industry is relying
heavily on the cyber security in tracking and tracing new orders. In 2012, the incident of
Shamoon virus attack affected 30,000 workstations in an oil producer and have highlighted
importance of the cyber security. The concept of product recalling, identification of
tampering and counterfeit components and even supply spectrum can be easily controlled by
cyber security. Key problems in the form of region of operation, shipment accuracy of goods
and products, physical security, internal process and social responsibilities can well
maintained under cyber security.
Supply chain risks
Most of the manufacturing industries, are facing issues in the form of faulty software that
has been hindering progress in the business. Counterfeit hardware or malware are not so
helpful in detecting the best supply chain management. Sometimes, the malwares gathers all
the vulnerable information regarding IP address and payment gateway and transfers them to
some hackers so that they can misuse the information. However, in most of manufacturing
sectors, the companies must take initiative to indulge the cyber security in the payment
gateway so that the data storage nodes and sub nodes can be protected. Five key problems
that can be found in the supply chain management are described below.
Country of origin
Country of origin is an important for the supply chain management as the
geographical location is one of the important factor that has highlighted the consequence of
supplying good quality of raw materials. Vulnerable and threat exposed countries will not be

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able to produce high quality of goods and raw materials. Now in order to minimise the risks
of physical location, cyber security can be integrated with the robotics in supplying goods
and raw materials to the producers. Use of robotics will allow the raw materials supplier to
have a close look on the process of supplying raw materials and even the problem of
intentional delivering of tampered or counterfeit products will be minimised. Use of strong IP
address will definitely allow the producers to build strong and integrated network portal
(Banham & Banham, 2019).
Shipment of delivery accuracy
Transporting the incorporation of shipment of goods and services in an accurate
manner is one of the toughest thing that most of suppliers thinks. Now sometimes, the
problem is faced while making delivery to one of the remote location and in that case use of
robots or automated machines will be highly effective. Use of robots and use of cyber
security is closely related as nowadays many robots are made that are having artificial
intelligence and the biggest example is Sophia. The companies should try robotics in loading
and unloading of vehicles that will minimise the human labour (Blanchard, 2019).
Provision of physical security
Providing physical security is an important factor that has given rise for the
development of resource and using robotics will give more security as all the passwords will
be controlled by computers. It can be acted in various ways as nowadays most of the locks in
doors can be opened through fingerprint lock and eye ball lock. Nowadays, cyber security
and supply chain management is closely associated as with the innovation of internet of
things huge amount of bulk data is being generated every day (Digital guardian, 2019). In
recent times about 64% of the cyber security breach is happening and most of cyber security

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breach is mainly happening due to internal process that includes current and former
employees.

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Internal process
Internal process in the form of current and former employees play a crucial role in
determining the overall contribution towards the organisations. Making deep connection with
cyber security and supply chain is going to increase the overall rate of production that will
immensely the industries like automobile, pharmaceuticals, food & beverage industry will
definitely increase the capital resources and will minimise excessive extortions on the human
resource. One of the myth that is existing in the society is that cyber threat is more or less
vulnerable more on states activities but the problem of cyber security is more vulnerable for
the destruction of private sectors.
Social and environmental responsibilities
In May 2017, a series of cyber-attacks took place using WannaCry ransom ware (a type
of computer virus that encrypts a user’s data and only releases it when a ransom has been
paid). Countries like United States, United Kingdom and North Korea witnessed loss of
around $1 billion (cfr.org, 2019). As per Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the amount
of money that is lost through cyber security around the globe is around $300 billion annually
(cfr.org, 2019).
Due Diligence section
One of the important factor that is lying within the supply chain management is the
diligence of the cyber security. Through the incorporation of third party contracts in every
business, the hackers are targeting those vendors for stealing of important information that
are closely related with the customers. Incident of stealing information on credit and debit
card is perhaps the first threat that cybercrime posted on common people. In order to
minimise level of diligence in the supply chain management is basically consisting of 9
crucial steps.

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Figure 1: Steps of successful diligence
(Source: Lexisnexis, 2019)
It is highly important for the supply chain management to identify the compliance
concerns and once the corporate objectives is being set it is important to collect required level
of information on the given process in order to validate the technologies. The risk
management team will then scrutinise the scope of the monitoring plan and take actions
against diligences that are being present within any economy. In order to increase the
effectiveness of the cyber security it is important to choose perfect security that is definitely
having an impact on the production ability.
Political Economic factors Social factors
Political factor that
is mainly associated
with supply chain
management is that
Economic factors in
the form of loss of
capital and human
resources will be
Social factors in the
form of misuse of
communication and
miscommunication

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supply of faulty raw
materials will
definitely going to
manufacture faulty
goods and products.
associated with
misuse of both
natural and artificial
resources that could
have increased the
production if used in
an efficient manner.
false communication
will take place
between
manufactures and
raw material
suppliers.
Five questions that could have been asked of suppliers during the process of diligence
and the questions are as follows.
Is the software or hardware of the vendor is being reputable or measurable?
Is the mitigation of known vulnerabilities factored into product design?
What controls are being taken to manage and monitor production process?
What levels of malware detection and protection has been taken to control?
What steps are taken to check employee background and their performances?
Best practice section
In order to evaluate the best practise of management in the supply chain management, the
companies need to identify the practices that will be highly beneficial for the best and
effective results. Five best practices that will be vulnerable in inducing best practise are as
followed.
 Security requirements to be included in every RFP and Contract.

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 Once a vendor is given access to the contract of supply chain management, there
should be a separate team of monitoring the gaps that are lying within the security of
supply chain management and minimisation of supply chain risks can be possible.
 Taking ‘one strike and you are out’ policy will not allow the suppliers to provide
counterfeit or false products that are not matching specification.
 Purchase of components will have to be controlled tightly and goods should be
purchased from reputed vendors and the ones that are being purchased from old
vendors need to be checked thoroughly through X-ray.
 Programmes and investment should be made on improving the software lifecycle
process.
Incorporation of all these practices will definitely going to results in best level of resource
build up and the factors of production will be able to contribute in a better way. Through the
involvement of cyber security in the supply chain management is basically going to increase
the rate of production (Norton, 2019).
Summary and Conclusion
In the industry of cyber security, most of the suppliers are facing tough choice in
choosing the nodes and sub node that will identify the factors that will definitely going to
give effective progress. In order to identify the factors that will definitely going to identify
the resources. In the cyber security industry it is important to identify supply chain that will
provide best quality of products and will indulge the security and data protection.

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Reference list
(2019). Retrieved 6 August 2019, from
https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Projects/Supply-Chain-Risk-Management/
documents/briefings/Workshop-Brief-on-Cyber-Supply-Chain-Best-Practices.pdf
(2019). Retrieved 6 August 2019, from
https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Projects/Supply-Chain-Risk-Management/
documents/case_studies/USRP_NIST_Exelon_102215_05.pdf
9 Steps to Effective Supplier Due Diligence - Risk Management Guide. (2019). Retrieved
6 August 2019, from https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/products/lexis-diligence/ctr/9-
steps-to-effective-third-party-due-diligence.page
Banham, R., & Banham, R. (2019). Risk Management – Political Risk and the Supply
Chain. Retrieved 6 August 2019, from
http://www.rmmagazine.com/2014/06/01/political-risk-and-the-supply-chain/
Blanchard, D. (2019). Top Five Supply Chain Risk Factors. Retrieved 6 August 2019,
from https://www.industryweek.com/environment/top-five-supply-chain-risk-factors
Cyber Security Risks in Industrial Supply Chains | SecurityWeek.Com. (2019). Retrieved
6 August 2019, from https://www.securityweek.com/cyber-security-risks-industrial-
supply-chains
Increasing International Cooperation in Cybersecurity and Adapting Cyber Norms.
(2019). Retrieved 6 August 2019, from https://www.cfr.org/report/increasing-
international-cooperation-cybersecurity-and-adapting-cyber-norms

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Norton, S. (2019). Going Beyond Due Diligence to Monitor Vendor Cybersecurity.
Retrieved 6 August 2019, from https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/03/21/going-beyond-
due-diligence-to-monitor-vendor-cybersecurity/
Securing the Supply Chain: Cybersecurity and the Digital Supply Chain. (2019).
Retrieved 6 August 2019, from https://www.lmi.org/blog/securing-supply-chain-
cybersecurity-and-digital-supply-chain
Supply Chain Cybersecurity: Experts on How to Mitigate Third Party Risk. (2019).
Retrieved 6 August 2019, from https://digitalguardian.com/blog/supply-chain-
cybersecurity