As we've entered the digital age, new specialities and methods of collaboration have made it easier to work together. But this interconnectedness is not without risk. By relying on others, organizations create a dependency over which they have limited control. Failures experienced by unreliable partners can affect not just a single organization, but also a remarkably large portion of the global economy.
In this report, we draw on Bitsight data from a variety of sources—including third-party relationships, our security scanning technologies, entity mapping, and financial data—to offer a comprehensive picture of what the global, digital supply chain looks like.
We uncover:
- The role of “providers,” or organizations that deliver resources and processes (and, spoiler alert, have their own large supply chains)
- There “hidden pillars” of the global supply chain (i.e. providers who serve a small number of consumers but have significant market share)
- How the security postures of each player—including providers, consumers, and products—factor in
- What CISOs or risk managers can do in the face of this complexity
"In our ever more connected world, in which nearly all interactions are mediated through the Internet, knowing more about [supply chain] incidents is critical to preparing for and blunting their impact."
Ben Edwards Principal Research Scientist Bitsight |
