Businesses are losing confidence in third-party suppliers, according to a survey by the IT security product company Kaspersky Lab and B2B International. The main reason, it’s suggested, is the increasing number of IT security incidents that they cause. The survey found the average cost of such an incident for Enterprise exceeded $3 million.
The recent survey showed that over a third of companies do not trust their suppliers, with the figure for the UK standing at 38 per cent in 2015 – which is five per cent more than the average of the EU (33 per cent) . This trend is the same for small and medium businesses as well as large corporations. The principal reason for this loss of faith in suppliers is the fact that they were to blame for eleven per cent of cyber incidents in 2015.
Incidents involving third-party suppliers are no less dangerous for businesses than direct cyber-attacks on a company’s infrastructure. In both cases, the cost of eliminating the consequences is equally high: cyber incidents involving suppliers cost small and medium businesses $67,000 on average, while the figure for large corporations is $3.27 million.
To prevent losses and facilitate secure communications with suppliers, a multi-layered strategy is required, said Kirill Slavin, general manager for UK and Ireland, Kaspersky Lab, pictured. “Outlining access rights to different segments of the corporate network for individual employees allows a business to limit a supplier’s access to company resources. Ensuring that you find out the details of the supplier’s IT security system and create rules of collaboration that are based on security, not just productivity and flexibility, is vital too.”
