Business Continuity

Supply Chain Disruption

According to the 2017 Wombat State of The Phish Report, 76% of the study's respondents reported being the victim of a phishing attack in 2016. Phishing, which can take the form of an email, text message, or phone call, is a fraudulent attempt to obtain personal information from a victim. In many instances, the cybercriminal attempts to trick the victim into believing that a communication is coming from a reputable source. Their tactics can include using a company's logo or similar-looking email address.

Many email service providers, such as Google and Microsoft, have systems in place to help weed out potential threats. Still, some communications may still manage to bypass security controls. 

Be wary if you receive requests via electronic communication that asks for personal information, such as social security numbers and account login information. If you receive a questionable email from a service provider, reach out directly to them to verify it was actually sent by them.” 

(source is from 2011) http://knowledgecenter.averittexpress.com/protecting-your-supply-chain-from-cybersecurity-threats

With everything to consider in creating a viable Business Continuity Program which in Supply Chain recovery planning consider these 5 key principles:

1. Adding Business Continuity Management (BCM) in your supply chain is a risk mitigation measure. You still need to consider supply chain failure in your own BCP and what you would do about it and how you would recover. Understand and recognize that at some point things will go wrong, however, good the adoption of Business Continuity Management practices in your supply chain.

2. BCM needs to be part of the procurement strategy. The engagement with the supply chain requires a positive relationship and the usual issues of purchasing power and negotiating leverage apply with BCM. Procurement needs to make sure that the appropriate business continuity conversations have happened, if not carried out directly. Sourcing councils, for example, should ask if supplier BCPs have been evaluated.

3. Focus on key suppliers first. Key suppliers are typically defined by how difficult they would be to replace should their product or service not be available to you over a time-period that would cause significant operational performance problems. These key suppliers may well be those with the largest spend but smaller niche suppliers may emerge from considering your business continuity requirements.

4. It’s important to consider the whole supply chain to identify single points of failure, whether among the suppliers, subcontractors, logistic operations or warehousing, if applicable.

5. Work with suppliers to develop their business continuity capability. This is particularly important when dealing with off-shore service providers and for improving communication between parties should an incident occur.

(source 2011) https://www.cips.org/Documents/Knowledge/Procurement-Topics-and-Skills/3-Risk-Mitigation/Risk-Analysis-and-Management/CIPS_BCI_Business_continuity_in_the_supply_chain.pdf 

Using some of these approaches will help though hiring a skilled professional with extensive knowledge in setting up Business Continuity Programs will guarantee the best solution for mitigating risk and providing the right strategies for recovery.

Barbara Davi, MBCP, MBCI, PMP