You’ve secured your internal environment. Your defences are strong, and your teams are trained. But what about the vendors and partners who handle your data?
A growing number of cyber incidents now start through trusted suppliers. If your cyber strategy doesn’t account for third-party risk, you’re leaving a significant gap in your defences. True resilience means securing your entire supply chain, not just your own systems.
Here’s how to identify the risks, strengthen weak links, and build ongoing protection across your supply chain.
Third parties can be a serious blind spot
Modern supply chains are complex and interconnected. Every new partner, software provider or contractor creates another access point into your environment. Many businesses assume their vendors are secure, but that trust can be misplaced.
According to SecurityScorecard’s 2024 Global Third-Party Breach Report, 35.5 percent of data breaches were linked to third-party access. The Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 30 percent of breaches involved third parties, which is double the figure from the previous year.
The ASD’s Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024–25 reinforces this global trend, identifying supply chain compromise as one of Australia’s top ten cyber threats. Managed service providers and trusted vendors remain attractive targets for attackers seeking broad access to multiple networks.
These numbers show how hidden vulnerabilities can undermine even the strongest security programs. Without clear visibility, regular assessments, and defined contractual obligations, one weak link can compromise your entire network.
When that happens, the consequences can be far-reaching. Beyond financial loss or data exposure, organisations face reputational damage, compliance breaches, and erosion of customer trust. Third-party risk reaches beyond technology. It affects operations, reputation, and the confidence that underpins every customer and partner relationship.
The good news is that third-party risk can be managed. A structured, proactive approach helps you find weak points early and build stronger supply chain defences.
How to vet vendors effectively
A strong supply chain defence starts with understanding who your vendors are and what access they have. To reduce risk and gain visibility, establish a consistent process for assessing and managing supplier security.
Follow these steps to build a more reliable vendor management framework:
- Build a register of all suppliers with system or data access.
- Assess each vendor’s security maturity through questionnaires or audits.
- Require evidence of patch management, multi-factor authentication, and incident reporting processes.
- Re-evaluate vendors annually, not just at onboarding.
This structured approach ensures every supplier meets your security expectations and helps you stay ahead of potential vulnerabilities.
Building supply chain security into your cyber strategy
You can’t control every aspect of your partners’ environments, but you can control how you assess, monitor, and manage them. A strong supply chain defence relies on a proactive approach that focuses on assessment, improvement, and ongoing management.
Assess: Identify your exposure
Start by mapping your suppliers and understanding which ones have access to sensitive data or systems. Use frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK and align your program with recognised standards like ISO 27001 to establish clear benchmarks for supplier security.
Tools such as CyberGRX help you standardise your third-party cyber risk management. The CyberGRX assessment methodology identifies both inherent and residual risk and uses near real-time threat analysis and independent evidence validation to give you a clear, data-driven view of your vendor ecosystem. This approach enables you to prioritise risks, validate supplier controls, and make informed decisions across your supply chain.
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Categorise your suppliers by their level of access or criticality.
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Focus on vendors that pose the greatest operational or data risk.
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Maintain a current view of all third-party connections to your systems.
Improve: Strengthen weak links
Once you understand where your vulnerabilities lie, the next step is to lift standards across your supply chain. This means embedding security expectations into every stage of your vendor relationships, from procurement to ongoing management.
To make this happen:
- Update procurement policies so that security becomes a selection factor, not an afterthought.
- Prioritise suppliers with recognised security certifications and attestations, such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2, that demonstrate strong information security management practices.
- Include clear security obligations in every contract, covering:
- Patch management requirements
- Incident response expectations
- Breach notification timeframes
This step matters. In 2025, third-party involvement in breaches rose to 30 percent, which underscores why formal security clauses and right-to-audit provisions are now table stakes. But policies alone aren’t enough. Building a culture of shared responsibility is just as important.
Extend security awareness beyond your own teams and make sure suppliers complete Security Awareness Training so everyone knows how to recognise and respond to threats. For more guidance on protecting user access and data, explore our article Is your IAM strategy holding you back? Why Identity is the key to cyber resilience.
Manage: Monitor and maintain
Building a secure supply chain isn’t a one-time project. Once your supplier management framework is in place, it needs to evolve alongside your business, your partners, and the threat landscape. Continuous oversight turns short-term improvements into long-term resilience.
Cyber security is not static, and neither are your suppliers. Ongoing oversight is essential.
- Build supplier reviews into your governance, risk, and compliance workflows.
- Reassess every six to twelve months to track changes in exposure.
- Use managed services like ASD Essential 8 as a Service to validate controls continuously.
- Include key vendors in your business continuity and incident response planning to ensure coordinated action during a security event.
Why a unified approach works
A unified approach also ensures your organisation stays aligned with evolving compliance expectations and national frameworks. As Australia strengthens its cyber regulations and expands mandatory reporting obligations, proactive governance is becoming essential. You can read more about this shift in our article What’s changing in Australian cybersecurity regulations?
When your supply chain is secure, you can operate with confidence. Each supplier becomes a strength rather than a risk.
Strengthen your supply chain defences
Your organisation’s cyber security is only as strong as the vendors and tools you rely on. By embedding supplier assessments, contractual security, and continuous monitoring into your strategy, you can strengthen every link in your supply chain and protect your business from evolving threats.
If you’d like expert guidance on enhancing supplier security in your organisation, contact us to speak with our cyber security specialists.
