A Shared Language for Supply Chain Security

In the world of technology, there are paradigms of language that arise organically and artificially over time. Necessity requires a shared mode of communication for ideas and as a result, descriptors, nouns, and technical designators are created and shared. The problem arises when certain words acquire a surfeit of meaning, so much so that they paradoxically become less meaningful. There are many examples of this but for our purposes, we’re going to look at “Supply Chain Security”.

Solorigate: A case study for why supply chain security is critical for governments and businesses

By Jim Hietala (VP, BD and Security), Andras Szakal (VP and CTO), John Linford Security and OTTF Forum Director) – The Open Group

In potentially the most damaging cyber-supply chain attack ever, a leading IT systems management vendor became the latest hi-tech company to suffer a major cybersecurity breach with wide-reaching consequences. The malware that caused the attack has been dubbed SUNBURST by Microsoft and code-named Solorigate by FireEye, the security consulting firm that uncovered the breach after falling victim to it late last year.

After successfully infiltrating the development environment, attackers were able to observe and learn how to subvert the vendor’s development and operations pipeline. Hackers were then able to maliciously taint the vendor’s product by planting a sophisticated trojan. Once the software, which required broad systems access, was installed in customers’ environments, the attackers were able to leverage the tainted software to exfiltrate sensitive information from within an organization’s network.

The Open Trusted Technology Provider™ Standard (O-TTPS) – Approved as ISO/IEC 20243:2015 and the O-TTPS Certification Program

By The Open Group

The increase of cybersecurity threats, along with the global nature of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), results in a threat landscape ripe for the introduction of tainted (e.g., malware-enabled or malware-capable) and counterfeit components into ICT products. This poses significant risk to customers in the operation of their business enterprises and our critical infrastructures.

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