In today’s hyperconnected business world, no organization operates in isolation. Cloud providers, SaaS platforms, AI, outsourcing partners, and logistics suppliers are critical parts of daily operations. While this interconnectedness boosts efficiency and growth, it also creates a widening attack surface.
Many of the latest large-scale cyberattacks didn’t start with the main target. They started with a supplier.
Attackers know that suppliers often represent the path of least resistance, and once compromised, the impact cascades directly to their customers.
This trend had been observed globally and in Switzerland, where several well-known cyber incidents in recent years started with attacks on suppliers. The consequences were felt far beyond the initial target, impacting customer data, operations, and trust.
That’s why Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) is no longer optional. It is a strategic imperative, and increasingly, a regulatory obligation.
Four reasons why TPRM must be a top priority for every CISO:
Know your environment and attack surface: You can’t protect what you don’t understand. Mapping out your suppliers, their criticality, and their risk exposure is the first step toward anticipating vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them.
Monitoring and Governance: Once a supplier is onboarded, the work doesn’t stop. Continuous monitoring, robust governance, and clear escalation paths are essential to preventing blind spots and ensuring ongoing compliance with your security expectations.
Resilience and operational incident playbooks: What happens if a supplier gets hacked? Effective resilience planning means having clear playbooks readyfor how to contain the incident, communicate, and ensure continuity of your own operations, even while your partner is compromised.
Regulatory pressure is rising: Frameworks such as NIS2 now explicitly require organizations to demonstrate effective supply chain risk management. Regulators now consider TPRM as a mandatory control rather than a best practice. Failure to comply can result in fines, reputational damage, and loss of trust.
How SPIE can help you build supply chain resilience
At SPIE, we help organizations to strengthen their ecosystem defenses with a 360° cybersecurity offering, including:
- Trustmetric Service: Delivering transparent, data-driven visibility into supplier risks to enable smarter decisions and proactive mitigation.
- Expert Security Consultants: Supporting you with in-depth supplier assessments, risk evaluations, and alignment with regulatory frameworks such as NIS2.
- Holistic Cybersecurity Strategy: Extending beyond your perimeter to protect the full ecosystem of partners, vendors, and service providers that keep your business running.
Cyber resilience is no longer just about protecting just your own infrastructure. It’s about safeguarding the entire ecosystem you depend on, especially since attackers increasingly exploit the weakest link in the chain.
So, let’s ask the critical question: Are you confident that your third-party risks are under control, or are you leaving your organization exposed through your partners’ vulnerabilities?