Supply Chain and Third-party Risks

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month in Australia, a national initiative to highlight the everyday steps organisations can take to stay secure. As part of this year’s campaign, Week 3 shines a spotlight on supply chain and third-party risks, an increasingly critical issue as our systems and services become ever more interconnected.

The fact of the matter is that no organisation operates in isolation. We all use suppliers and partners, from cloud providers and software vendors to outsourced services and hardware suppliers, and every one of those external partners is a potential entry point for attackers. It takes just one weakness in your supply chain to ripple through your organisation, disrupting operations, exposing sensitive data, and damaging trust with customers and stakeholders. This is why managing supply chain and third-party risks is no longer just a procurement concern; it should form a core part of your cyber resilience strategy.

Supply Chain and Third-party Risks in Australia

Australian organisations are facing a growing number of threats from their supply chains and third-party relationships. And, unfortunately, these risks aren’t just theoretical; they’re real, frequent, and increasingly complex. Some of the top supply chain and third-party risks in 2025 include:

• Supply chain attacks: Malicious software updates and insecure configurations in vendor tools are increasingly common and can impact multiple organisations at once.
• Operational disruption: If a critical vendor goes offline, suffers a compromise, or faces hardware or software delays, downstream operations are directly affected.
• Weak security practices: Some third parties fail to maintain robust patching, use strong authentication, or secure their development environments.
• Foreign control: Suppliers based in other jurisdictions may be subject to foreign laws or obligations that could compromise data privacy or introduce vulnerabilities.
• Poor visibility: Many enterprises have good oversight of their direct vendors, but lack clarity on who their suppliers’ suppliers are.
• Contractual liabilities: Inadequate contracts that fail to define responsibilities, incident reporting, or data handling can expose organisations to legal and operational risks.

Left unchecked, these vulnerabilities can impede business continuity, erode trust with customers and partners, and expose organisations to significant financial costs. These costs, including breach remediation, litigation, regulatory penalties, and lost revenue, can also have a considerable impact, making mitigating the risk a vital business priority. Organisations that take a proactive approach, assessing, monitoring, and strengthening supplier relationships, are far better placed to limit exposure, reduce disruption, and maintain resilience in an increasingly interconnected environment.

ASD Guidance on Managing Supply Chain Risks

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), through the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), has developed clear guidance to help organisations understand and manage supply chain risks. This includes not only direct suppliers, but also the distributors, manufacturers, and subcontractors that form part of the wider ecosystem.

Key recommendations from the ASD include:

• Review your supply chain: Identify suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers, and understand the risks each may introduce.
• Apply strong procurement and outsourcing practices: Build security requirements into contracts, define responsibilities, and ensure clear processes for incident reporting.
• Manage the supply chain lifecycle: Maintain oversight across the lifespan of systems and services, ensuring updates and maintenance keep pace with evolving threats.
• Choose secure technologies: Prioritise suppliers and products that are built on secure-by-design principles, with transparency and verifiability built in.

By reviewing these relationships and applying consistent security practices, organisations can identify where vulnerabilities lie and assess the level of exposure they carry. Ultimately, by following ASD’s recommendations, you’ll be more informed about your suppliers and the technologies they use, reducing risk and strengthening your long-term resilience.

How Infotrust Can Help

Managing third-party and supply chain risks is not optional; it’s an essential part of your organisation’s overall cybersecurity posture. These risks need to be embedded into every stage of your operations, from procurement decisions and supplier contracts through to ongoing monitoring and incident response.

At Infotrust, we help organisations put the ASD’s recommendations into practice by strengthening Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) across the supply chain, including:

• Governance: We support organisations to develop clear policies, strengthen supplier relationships, and embed security requirements into contracts.
• Risk: Through Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), we help identify and validate vulnerabilities across the supply chain, including jurisdictional and access risks, so you can prioritise the right mitigations.
• Compliance: Our Data Security services put in place the classification frameworks and protection measures needed to meet regulatory requirements while reducing third-party exposure.

These services are underpinned by our Managed Security Operations Centre, which provides continuous monitoring, advanced analytics, and threat intelligence. Together with our assurance and third-party risk management services, we can help you gain confidence that your suppliers and technologies are secure, resilient, and compliant.

Strengthening Your Supply Chain

Supply chain and third-party risks may not always be visible, but they pose a significant threat to every Australian business. However, by managing these risks proactively and embedding them into your broader GRC strategy, you can protect your organisation and build confidence in the partners you rely on.

To learn more about how Infotrust can help you strengthen your supply chain and reduce third-party risk, contact our experts to book a consultation.