Supply Chain Attack Surface

In cybersecurity, the Supply Chain Attack Surface refers to all the potential vulnerabilities and entry points that attackers can exploit to compromise an organization's software, hardware, or services through its supply chain.

Think of it like this: a company's supply chain is a network of interconnected organizations, processes, and technologies that create and deliver products or services. Each link in this chain represents a potential point of weakness that attackers can target.

Here's a breakdown of what constitutes the supply chain attack surface:

• Software: Third-party libraries, dependencies, development tools, code repositories, and update mechanisms.

• Hardware: Physical components, embedded systems, manufacturing processes, and distribution channels.

• Services: Cloud, managed service providers (MSPs), data centers, and other external services.

• People: Employees, contractors, and vendors with access to sensitive systems or information.

Why is the supply chain attack surface so important?

• Increased interconnectedness: Modern businesses rely heavily on external entities, increasing their supply chain complexity and potential vulnerabilities.

• Trust relationships: Organizations often implicitly trust their suppliers, making them susceptible to attacks that exploit this trust.

• Amplified impact: A successful supply chain attack can have a cascading effect, compromising multiple organizations at once.

Examples of supply chain attacks:

• SolarWinds attack: Attackers compromised SolarWinds' software updates to distribute malware to thousands of customers.

• NotPetya ransomware: This malware spreads rapidly through infected software updates, causing significant disruption worldwide.

Securing the supply chain attack surface is crucial for organizations of all sizes. It requires a multi-layered approach that includes:

• Rigorous vendor risk management: Assessing and mitigating the security risks associated with suppliers.

• Secure development practices: Implementing security measures throughout the software development lifecycle.

• Strong access controls: Limiting access to sensitive systems and data.

• Continuous monitoring and threat intelligence: Detecting and responding to potential threats in real-time.

By understanding and addressing the surface of the supply chain attack, organizations can significantly reduce their risk of falling victim to these increasingly common and devastating attacks,

ThreatNG's comprehensive suite of features can significantly help organizations secure their supply chain attack surface. Here's how it addresses the key aspects we discussed earlier:

1. Rigorous Vendor Risk Management:

• ThreatNG's Third-Party Exposure Security Rating allows you to assess the security posture of your vendors and suppliers. By leveraging its vast intelligence repositories and investigation modules, you can gain insights into their:

• Cyber Risk Exposure: Identify vulnerabilities, data leaks, and dark web mentions related to your vendors.

• ESG Exposure: Assess their environmental, social, and governance practices, which can impact their overall risk profile.

• Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: Uncover potential risks from their suppliers and dependencies.

• Domain Intelligence: Investigate the security posture of vendor domains through DNS records (identifying hosting providers and potential infrastructure weaknesses), subdomain analysis (uncovering forgotten or vulnerable services), certificate analysis (detecting expired or misconfigured certificates), and more.

• Sensitive Code Exposure: Discover if your vendors have exposed sensitive information like API keys or passwords in public code repositories, indicating poor security practices.

• Dark Web Presence: Identify any compromised credentials or ransomware events associated with your vendors, signaling potential compromise.

2. Secure Development Practices:

• ThreatNG's discovery and assessment capabilities can help you identify vulnerabilities in your software development lifecycle:

• BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: Assess your susceptibility to Business Email Compromise (BEC) and phishing attacks, which can compromise your internal systems and lead to supply chain breaches.

• Web Application Hijack Susceptibility & Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: Identify weaknesses in your web applications and subdomains that attackers could exploit to compromise your software or services.

• Data Leak Susceptibility: Detect potential data leaks from your organization that could expose sensitive information to attackers.

• Domain Intelligence: Uncover exposed APIs and development environments that could be entry points for attackers.

• Search Engine Exploitation: Identify sensitive information inadvertently exposed through search engines, such as susceptible files, servers, and user data.

• Online Sharing Exposure: Detect any sensitive code or information shared on platforms like Pastebin, which attackers could leverage.

3. Strong Access Controls:

• ThreatNG's continuous monitoring helps you detect unauthorized access attempts and suspicious activities related to your critical systems and data.

• Social Media: Monitor social media for posts indicating social engineering attempts or leaked credentials.

• Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identify unsanctioned cloud services or shadow IT that could bypass your security controls.

4. Continuous Monitoring and Threat Intelligence:

• ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide up-to-date information on:

• Dark web: Monitor for mentions of your organization, compromised credentials, and ransomware events.

• Known vulnerabilities: Stay informed about the latest software and hardware vulnerabilities.

• Ransomware events and groups: Track ransomware activities and identify potential threats to your organization.

• Archived Web Pages: Analyze historical data to identify patterns and trends in your attack surface.

Working with Complementary Solutions

ThreatNG can integrate with other security solutions to enhance your overall security posture:

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems: Feed ThreatNG's findings into your SIEM to correlate data and improve threat detection and response.

• Vulnerability scanners: Combine ThreatNG's external attack surface discovery with internal vulnerability scanning for a comprehensive view of your security posture.

• Threat intelligence platforms: Integrate ThreatNG's intelligence with other intelligence sources to enrich your understanding of the threat landscape.

Examples

• Identifying a vulnerable vendor: ThreatNG's Domain Intelligence module discovers that a critical vendor has an expired SSL certificate and a known vulnerability in their web server software. This information allows you to proactively engage with the vendor to address these issues before they can be exploited.

• Detecting a data leak: ThreatNG's Search Engine Exploitation module identifies sensitive employee data exposed through a misconfigured cloud storage bucket belonging to your organization. This allows you to secure the data and prevent further exposure quickly.

• Preventing a phishing attack: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring detects a phishing campaign targeting your employees. You can block the attack by analyzing the phishing emails and associated infrastructure and educating your employees about the threat.

By leveraging ThreatNG's comprehensive capabilities, organizations can effectively manage their supply chain attack surface, reduce their risk of compromise, and protect their critical assets.