How Businesses Can Secure Their Supply Chains From Cyber Threats While Shipping Globally
Whether you are a rapidly scaling eCommerce store or a reputed shipping company, your supply chain is the lifeblood of your business. However, with the increased exposure to global businesses and partners, facing complex challenges posed by the evolving cyber threat landscape is inevitable.
Being unprepared in such situations can cost you a lot of time and resources, and even lead to disruption of your supply chain networks. After all, the smallest attack on one of your suppliers or logistics providers can snowball into a major crisis that could threaten even your business survival.
With that in mind, before we look at the strategies and actionable steps you can take to safeguard your global supply chain, let us understand the cyber threat landscape you might be dealing with.
Understanding the Cyber Threat Landscape in Global Shipping
As businesses continue to add layers of complexity to their supply chains, the overall cyber threat landscape is becoming more unpredictable and opaque than ever. With that in mind, here are some of the common vulnerabilities plaguing international courier and shipping that you should know about:
Weak Third-Party Security
Small-time vendors and companies often have vulnerable security systems that can be easily exploited by attackers, creating a cyber inequity that highlights differences between small and large brands.
Poor Data Encryption and Access Controls
If your supply chain uses IoT-powered devices and freight tracking portals, you may be dealing with weaker protections that make easy targets of your cargo, industry, and customer information.
Unpatched Systems and Legacy Software
Many cyberattackers exploit unpatched or outdated systems to launch zero-day attacks that can dismantle global supply chain networks.
Phishing and Business Email Compromise
Companies can leverage deepfake technology to launch social engineering attacks that end up bypassing access or verification mechanisms
With all these vulnerabilities threatening your systems, you might be wondering about the specific activities that lead to security issues
- Operational Technology (OT) vulnerabilities: Understanding what is operational technology and its impact on industrial security and threat management is important. If you manage and automate ships, ports, and warehouses that are digitally connected using insecure or outdated protocols, you are more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
- Remote access and cloud migration: Cyberattackers can gain access to unauthorized systems, which are poorly configured, and hijack them because shipping and logistics companies rely excessively on remote connections.
- Global regulatory differences: When dealing with cross-border logistics, you have to deal with evolving data protection standards, compliance frameworks, and enforcement that vary across regions.
10 Effective Strategies for Securing Global Supply Chain Networks
With the aforementioned risks and cyberthreats in mind, you need strong and battle-tested frameworks to safeguard global supply chain networks. Here are some that you can consider implementing for your logistics or shipping business:
Conduct Cybersecurity Audits for Logistics Partners and Systems
One of the best ways to secure your global supply chain is to keep auditing it at regular intervals. Prioritize auditing all your third-party vendors and partners, and require them to submit proof of necessary security controls and measures, and penetration test results. You can even use risk intelligence services and assessment tools to keep a check on your vendors’ threat exposure and supply chain resilience.
Actionable Tip: Consider establishing the expectations and protocols related to cybersecurity with the logistics partner when you sign them on, to prevent any confusion at later stages.
Demand Compliance With International Security Standards from Vendors
Make it mandatory for all your vendors and associate companies to adhere to regulatory frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISO/IEC 27001. Doing so will help you establish credibility and establish a standardized cybersecurity guideline to be followed across your supply chain. Include clauses that mandate compliance reporting and spot checks in your service agreements.
Actionable Tip: Use compliance and cybersecurity tools to automate compliance documentation and management within your organization and with external stakeholders.
Use Multi-Factor Authentication for Shipping and Inventory Portals
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a great way to safeguard your systems and ensure that your integral shipping and inventory portals stay protected. Multi-factor authentication involves multiple levels of verification, such as password, one-time code, and sometimes biometric evaluation to enter the portals.
Such measures are especially important for protecting your digital freight and ERP systems. Conduct biometric authentication for crucial compliance checks and accessing sensitive data.
Actionable Tip: Integrate MFA into your security strategy to increase its effectiveness and performance for your processes
Implement Data Encryption and Timely Software Patches
To ensure that your security strategy is truly effective and holistic in scope, you must protect all layers and levels of your supply chain systems. Start by mandating data encryption for all the data and information that is in transit and at rest for every process and level in the supply chain system.
Deploy a centralized vulnerability management system that not only proactively identifies threats but also applies timely patches for any threats identified in the system.
Actionable Tip: Prioritize implementing encryption measures for exchanging communication internally and with other vendors and partners.
Secure IoT-powered Smart Tracking Devices
When using smart tracking devices for your business, safeguarding them with the right password and encryption measures will help protect them from malicious attacks. For starters, ensure that each device has its own unique credentials and that you don’t reuse any passwords. You should also disable any unnecessary ports, monitor device logs, and restrict API access to identify any anomalies and unauthorized actions.
Actionable Tip: Apply security patches and timely firmware updates immediately upon release and segment IoT devices to limit damage even if one device is compromised.
Conduct Regular Employee Training and Awareness Programs
With cybercriminals using sophisticated measures and deepfake technologies, 42% organizations have reported successful social engineering attacks in recent years. Training staff and employees effectively and periodically is a strong defense against social engineering, insider threats, and phishing threats in the supply chain.
Actionable Tip: Conduct quarterly and interactive cyberawareness training and simulated phishing exercises regularly, including AI-generated attack scenarios and other sophisticated threats.
Set Clear Protocols for Reporting and Managing Suspicious Incidents
While certain cyberthreats and attacks are entirely unavoidable, you can be better prepared to handle and contain them. Doing so and having defined protocols for rapid reporting and escalation can help you minimize losses and ensure a structured approach in case of such incidents. You must also define clear reporting channels for cyber incidents and establish escalation paths to follow when seeking to implement faster mitigation measures and strengthen regulatory compliance.
Actionable Tip: Establish a reporting hotline and digital submission platform so that employees know the protocol to be followed when reporting suspicious activity and for incident response.
Strengthen Incident Response Planning
Rehearse and practice the incident response plan and strategy you have in place for addressing the major cyber threats and cyberattacks. Having a well-rehearsed incident response strategy can ensure you can reduce the cost of recovery by 60%. Comprehensive incident response plans can also help organizations shorten shipping disruptions due to cyberattacks.
To block any suspicious malware or ransomware propagation, ensuring seamless coordination with supply chain partners.
Actionable Tip: Conduct annual table-top exercises to prepare your team to respond promptly, and train them for cyber response protocols so you can prevent and mitigate most cyber threats or cyberattacks.
Use Blockchain for Shipment Authentication and Tamper-Proof Records
One of the biggest challenges plaguing global supply chain networks today is the lack of transparency, which can lead to delays and losses to shippers and receivers. To prevent this, one of the best solutions that a shipping company can consider is implementing blockchain technology.
By integrating blockchain technology in your supply chain and shipping processes, you can implement immutable and tamper-proof records, thus eliminating most fraud risks. Most large shipping companies and giants have already implemented blockchain systems and platforms to improve the speed and transparency in their operations.
Actionable Tip: Consider incorporating blockchain-based documentation, especially when dealing with high-value shipments, starting by digitizing bills of lading and customs manifests.
Consider Technological Solutions for Enhanced Protection
Shipping companies and organizations dealing with global and complex supply chain systems must consider making large technological investments. Such investments may include AI-powered monitoring tools, resilient systems for backups, and even segmented networks. Such mechanisms, when implemented effectively, can reduce downtime and enable seamless anomaly detection and rapid recovery.
Most large enterprises and shipping companies today leverage biometric authentication, automated controls, and honeypots to proactively identify and eliminate the risk of sophisticated cyberattacks.
Actionable Tip: Utilize AI-powered network monitoring tools that not only streamline your logistical workflows but also help you detect fraud and malware before it starts destroying your supply chain networks.
Concluding Remarks
As digital transformation continues to become the norm in logistical companies and supply chain processes, they have become more vulnerable to cyberattacks. Building a resilient supply chain today means having battle-tested mechanisms and strategies to combat cyber threats, and requires you to consider adopting a collaborative and continuous approach.
Investing in emerging technologies and strategies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and IoT can equip you with the tools that you need to future-proof your security systems and ensure continuity and strength in your global supply chain.
Vincent van Vliet
Vincent van Vliet is co-founder and responsible for the content and release management. Together with the team Vincent sets the strategy and manages the content planning, go-to-market, customer experience and corporate development aspects of the company.
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