Analysis and measures to secure the digital supply chain
The internet is connecting people and machines more and more and has already made a lasting difference to our lives. While the integrity and safety of products from traditional sectors are inspected for certain issues prior to market approval (e.g. in the areas of mobility, food, medicines, etc.), the quality and safety of many digital products is not assured. There are various reasons for this. Today’s supply chain security for digital products is often inadequate and undermines the existing security measures. Also, decision-makers are often unable to make sustainable decisions due to a lack of well-founded and transparent information.
As digitalisation progresses, ignorance concerning the level of security of the products used can lead to critical threats. If incompletely tested products are used in critical infrastructures, threats may be widespread and endanger the provision to society in the areas of electricity, medicine, mobility and physical protection. These risks are abstract, have developed slowly and, consequently, were ignored for a long time and continually accumulated until now.
The Supply Chain Security working group analyses how technological risks are dealt with in other sectors (e.g. electricity supply) and, based on this, identifies and documents the measures that are needed for secure digitalisation. The following topics are addressed, among others:
- What are the biggest risks of the digital society and where do they lie?
- What do critical attack scenarios look like and who are the attackers?
- What can and must we – as an industry or as society in general – consider or undertake right away?
- What measures are necessary and helpful to secure the digital supply chain?
As a society, we have a duty to prevent known and avoidable mistakes so that now and in the future the opportunities offered by digitalisation outweigh the risks.
