How Secure Collaboration Keeps Supply Chains Moving 

Key takeaways: 

• Supply chains are a top target for cybercriminals, since brief disruptions can cause massive financial fallout. 
• Secure collaboration tools protect sensitive data while keeping global supply chain partners aligned in real time. 
• Integrating collaboration and incident response ensures rapid, coordinated action that helps teams resolve issues and keep supply chains moving. 

In 2017, the NotPetya cyberattack crippled global supply chains, encrypting computer boot records and rendering systems inoperable around the world.  

While shipping firms were the direct targets, their customers suffered the heaviest losses. One estimate puts those damages at $7.3 billion — four times greater than the costs incurred by the firms directly hit. 

Global supply chains move the world. They’re also incredibly complex, involving tons of data and systems, many different partners, and transfers across geographies. This interconnectivity creates a broad attack surface for threat actors and cybercriminals who know that even minor disruptions can ripple through entire industries, giving bad actors all the leverage they need to extort their victims. 

To help supply chain managers strengthen their defenses, AJ Nash recently sat down for a conversation with two Mattermost colleagues — Victor Hernandez, senior solutions architect, and Daniel Schalla, director of security — to discuss the unique challenges supply chains face and how secure collaboration tools can help incident response teams protect mission-critical systems from attacks.  

Why Are Supply Chains a Prime Target for Hackers? 

Many supply chains operate on just-in-time models, leaving little margin for error.  

Hackers know that even a short disruption can delay shipments, trigger penalties for missed contractual obligations, and cascade across entire networks of partners and customers. 

“The contractual damages can be major,” Schalla says. “If you’re targeted, [cybercriminals] know that time is money. If you need to reroute orders and can’t communicate effectively anymore, that effects everything downstream and makes everything more challenging.” 

Secure Collaboration: The Key to Supply Chain Resilience 

According to Hernandez, communication and collaboration are essential for keeping supply chains running smoothly as data flows between global suppliers, logistics providers, and customers. 

To maintain momentum, teams need to be transparent, sharing information with partners in real time. But they also need to ensure that certain information is protected — like intellectual property — and that partners don’t have access to any more information than they need to do their jobs. 

“Transparency does not mean oversharing,” Hernandez says. 

By using a secure collaboration platform with role-based access controls, organizations can enforce the principle of least privilege while maintaining operational efficiency. 

“Modern tools need to be able to do this in a scalable, productive way,” he continues, adding that features like audit trails and zero-trust architecture are essential for compliance and risk management. 

During a crisis, supply chain teams often need to communicate with partners far more urgently than during normal operations. To enable this rapid communication, Hernandez recommends choosing collaboration tools that allow organizations to quickly onboard temporary partners while controlling access with multi-factor authentication (MFA) and activity monitoring — ensuring only the right people see the right information at the right time. 

“The tool needs to be accessible, reliable, and user-friendly,” Hernandez says. “In high-stress situations, response teams need to be able to communicate in a way that’s already familiar to them.” 

Other features to consider include mobile accessibility, offline access, and redundancy, he says. 

Bringing Collaboration & Incident Response Together to Keep Supply Chains Safe 

When incidents happen, teams need to collaborate extensively. But without a clear process, chaos can take over. That’s why integrating collaboration directly into incident response can be a true game-changer. 

“Everyone is informed,” Schalla says. “It enables organizations to respond more effectively.” 

To keep communication flowing even in the heat of a crisis, consider using an out-of-band collaboration solution that doesn’t live on primary infrastructure. That way, in the event main lines of communication are knocked offline, incident response teams can still coordinate. 

“That is key to keeping the supply chain moving,” Hernandez says. 

Since technology will always continue to evolve, Hernandez recommends looking for an adaptable collaboration solution that enables you to future-proof incident response. 

“The platform itself should be extensible to accomplish and enable what it needs to do now but also extensible enough to adapt to future technologies,” Hernandez concludes. 

To learn more about how organizations can secure their supply chains — and explore some other key considerations for collaboration technology, including self-hosted solutions, data sovereignty, and sovereign AI — watch the webinar: Keeping the Supply Chain Moving: How Secure Collaboration Supports Logistics Operations.