Complex supply chains have complex security requirements, but secure them you must. Here's where to start.

It seems impossible to overstate the importance of the supply chain, especially in times like these. Millions of consumers, too, learned distressing lessons when stories of crops rotting in fields and images of empty grocery shelves collided. 

One glaring realization: Many supply chains are not just complex, they're brittle – hardened against certain risks, but vulnerable to shocks from other sources. That statement is true for the physical components of a supply chain as well as the supply chain data that IT security professionals are charged with protecting.

Dark Reading turned to a number of security professionals about what it takes to secure a supply chain. Their answers ran the gamut from the obvious to the subtle, the strategic to the operational. But all recognized one critical fact: "Supply chain risks are complex," says Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra. And managing those risks is no simpler.

The points we present here are intended to help you protect your supply chain from multiple risks – not just the most obvious. And they tend to look at data that flows through an organization's supply chain from many directions, not simply upstream.

How has your supply chain fared in 2020? Have your plans for supply chain resilience panned out, or have there been lessons learned from a shock to the system? Leave a comment, below, to share your lessons or triumphs from these extraordinary times.

(Image: momius VIA Adobe Stock)

About the Author(s)

Curtis Franklin, Principal Analyst, Omdia

Curtis Franklin Jr. is Principal Analyst at Omdia, focusing on enterprise security management. Previously, he was senior editor of Dark Reading, editor of Light Reading's Security Now, and executive editor, technology, at InformationWeek, where he was also executive producer of InformationWeek's online radio and podcast episodes

Curtis has been writing about technologies and products in computing and networking since the early 1980s. He has been on staff and contributed to technology-industry publications including BYTE, ComputerWorld, CEO, Enterprise Efficiency, ChannelWeb, Network Computing, InfoWorld, PCWorld, Dark Reading, and ITWorld.com on subjects ranging from mobile enterprise computing to enterprise security and wireless networking.

Curtis is the author of thousands of articles, the co-author of five books, and has been a frequent speaker at computer and networking industry conferences across North America and Europe. His most recent books, Cloud Computing: Technologies and Strategies of the Ubiquitous Data Center, and Securing the Cloud: Security Strategies for the Ubiquitous Data Center, with co-author Brian Chee, are published by Taylor and Francis.

When he's not writing, Curtis is a painter, photographer, cook, and multi-instrumentalist musician. He is active in running, amateur radio (KG4GWA), the MakerFX maker space in Orlando, FL, and is a certified Florida Master Naturalist.

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