Supply Chain Attack: How To Protect Your Business

The fact that cyberattacks are one of the biggest threats to companies is nothing new. Time and again, criminals do not attack their targets directly. Instead, they focus on the associated supply chain - including you as a freelancer. Read the article to find out what this means and what you can do to protect yourself against supply chain attacks.

Supply Chain Attacks: A Threat To Freelancers?

As a freelancer, you may be part of the supply chain of a larger company. If you fall victim to a supply chain attack, it's not just your business that suffers damage - your customers also have to bear the consequences. In the worst case scenario, you could even face claims for compensation and lose the trust of your clients. This may happen, for example, if it turns out that you could have prevented the attack with stronger security measures.

Procedure Of a Supply Chain Attack

The aim of a supply chain attack is to spread malware via suppliers and other third parties. The three most common variants are:

• Software: Transferring malicious code into an application
• Hardware: Use of physical devices such as keyloggers (logs keystrokes)
• Firmware: Injecting malware into the boot code of a computer

As criminals usually rely on many different scams, comprehensive protection is essential.

How To Protect Your Business From Supply Chain Attacks

You can take a number of measures to make it more difficult for hackers to access your IT infrastructure:

• Observe the security requirements of your clients.
• Manage access authorisations.
• Keep your anti-virus software up to date.
• Have your security measures checked by experts.
• Test the emergency with an external penetration test.
• Keep up to date with cyber security and train your employees if necessary.
• Create an emergency plan for a worst-case scenario.
• Only use services that are officially authorised and thus prevent shadow IT.

Especially if malicious software has already found its way into your IT infrastructure, tools such as vulnerability scanners, browser isolation tools and AI can provide useful support to at least mitigate the threat.

Even if you are part of a supply chain, you should protect yourself against attacks. You can do this with Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali. It's best to combine it with our Additional Add-on for First-Party Cyber and Data Risks Insurance (FPC) to be fully protected against the consequences of cyberattacks.

You can read more about supply chain attacks here: Supply Chain Attack: How To Protect Yourself.