The way businesses view suppliers is in desperate need of an update

In our current landscape of business leadership, there's a pressing need for a mindset refresh. It's not a unanimous sentiment, but a significant majority of business owners seem to be treading on the path of outdated thinking.

It's time for a collective update to ensure a more forward-looking and sustainable future.

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It’s based around supplier management.

When we think about how our business operates if one of our key suppliers ceases to operate, we simply find another one.

Our business can survive and carry on as normal.? This was the extent of our perceived risk.

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That’s the old view.? The pre-digital view.

The view where the only harm that could befall a business was going bust.? And if a supplier had a mishap, we were affected only by how limited our choice of acceptable alternatives may be.

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Now we’re all digitally connected to large numbers of suppliers who hold large volumes of customer data, a supplier can be compromised and compromise our company data, including our customer data.

Imagine This Scenario

It's like if you went to a bank and you said “oh what happened here?”?

(You can imagine a very traditional bank in the financial district or old American Wild West town bank, if it helps you to visualise the scene better)

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Bank: We were robbed this morning.?

You: ?So they stole the bank’s money?

Bank:? No.? They stole yours.

You:? How can that happen? ?I haven’t been robbed.

Bank:? Well, you have.? And they took your customers’ money too.

You: ?But my business wasn’t robbed.? Your bank was.

Bank: ?Yes? You’re right.? And the criminals took your money and your customers’ money.? Oh, and all the ledgers that you stored in the safe deposit box with your customers’ transactions? ?You lost that too.

You: I lost it? You were the ones who were robbed and you’re telling me that I lost all my money, my customers’ money and the information we entrusted you to keep safe?

Bank: ?Yes, exactly.? You might be in a bit of trouble.

Bank:? By the way.? Did I mention that you may have given away enough information in our robbery for the criminals to come back and rob you directly and maybe even your customers, depending on how much information they managed to steal along with any other data they may be able to get elsewhere?

Bank: Did I mention that you might be in a bit of trouble?

You:? BUT I DIDN’T GET ROBBED!? YOU DID!? My doors are locked and no one got into my home or business. If anyone is in trouble it’s YOU.

Bank: I wish that were true, but unfortunately, even though we had a break-in and robbery, the criminals stole YOUR money and information.

You: ?Money and information we trusted you to keep safe!? You boasted about how secure your business is!

Bank:? And, once again, we didn’t lose any of our money and information in the robbery.? You did.

You:? Aaaaaaaaah!

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We Are All Digitally Connected

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This is the digital age where a third-party vendor may provide an online platform that your business uses to process customer payments, manage customer documents, store client details, communicate with customers, etc.

Many businesses operate with similar systems at the heart of their operations meaning that their critical risks have moved to include their supply chain.

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You’re currently reading this on a platform that contains your contact details, connections to customers and colleagues and any other information that you commit to a post. ?

But there will be other platforms, systems and service providers who provide far more essential, maybe even critical systems for the operation of your business. ??

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You don’t have to experience a data breach or a hack yourself to lose all of this information to a criminal organisation.? A cyber attack on a platform that is key to the operation of your company’s core functions, could bring your ability to operate to a stop.

A False Sense of Security

With huge amounts of our commercial data now being processed and stored on cloud-based platforms, it was easy to feel that our businesses were secured.? After all, we’ve entrusted our data to companies who claim to be experts at operating online.? We assume that our data is as safe as if we had it locked away in a bank vault.

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It’s a common feature of many such vendor websites to see a list of technical information that is presented to reassure prospective customers that your data is safe.? You can still find this information on their website after they have had a significant breach and lost customer data to hackers.

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How Do We Return To Security and Safety?

It’s clear that each organisation needs to do much more to safeguard their data, including the data that is entrusted to them by their customers (their customer’s customers, etc).

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Start with a security audit of your business, including the risks to your data through your supply chain.?

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Hackers traditionally increase their activities in the run-up to Christmas and several recent breaches show that this year follows the same trend of ever-increasing volumes of attempts, and unfortunately also successes, for the cybercriminals.

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Please ensure that the measures that your business takes to safeguard your data include all of the data that is entrusted to you, as well as the data that you entrust to your suppliers.

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Just meeting compliance standards is not enough. These minimal standards do not constitute actual protection, and while they may be enough to satisfy authorities and governing bodies, they won’t protect your business from the commercial damage that a breach may bring.

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For a thorough awareness of the risks, threats and opportunities for increased safety for your data and your business, contact Loopli today. www.getloopli.co.uk