When most people think of cybersecurity, they imagine firewalls, antivirus, and password policies inside their own business. But recent high-profile incidents have shown that sometimes the biggest risks don’t come from within — they come from the supply chain.

Over the past year, we’ve seen major organisations disrupted by supplier outages:

  • Airports including Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin forced back to pen-and-paper check-ins after a cyber-attack on a shared airline system.
  • Jaguar Land Rover still struggling to restore operations after a supplier breach.

In both cases, the businesses affected had not been directly hacked themselves. Instead, they were caught in the fallout when a key supplier failed.

Aeroplane coming in to land, Amsterdam airport Shiphol

The Weakest Link Problem

A supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You can have every cyber control in place, but if a critical partner is taken offline, your business feels the impact.

For suppliers at the top of the chain, the responsibility is huge: one breach can cascade down to dozens of customers and thousands of end users. For those further down the chain, the risk is just as real: even if you’ve done everything right, you’re still exposed to your partners’ vulnerabilities.

The Domino Effect in Action

  • One system outage at a software provider → multiple airlines unable to check in passengers → thousands of travellers delayed or stranded.
  • One compromised supplier in the automotive industry → production lines paused → dealers unable to fulfil orders → customer trust eroded.

These examples underline a harsh truth: supply chain risk is business risk.

Building Resilience Into Your Supply Chain

So, what can businesses do? Here are some practical steps:

✅ Know your critical suppliers – Identify which vendors your operations couldn’t survive without.
✅ Ask the right questions – Do they have backups, monitoring, and incident response plans in place?
✅ Scenario test – Run “what if” exercises. What if your key software provider went down for 48 hours? Could you still serve customers?
✅ Diversify where possible – Avoid relying on a single supplier for critical services.
✅ Make resilience part of procurement – Security and continuity should be as important as cost and features.

Take the First Step Today

Supply chain risk might sound like something only big corporations need to worry about, but it affects businesses of every size. Whether you’re a school relying on a cloud provider, or an SME dependent on a finance platform, the principle is the same: you need to plan for the unexpected.

👉 Ready to see where your business stands?
Take our free 12-question Cyber Check self-assessment today: cybercheck.hiltdigital.co.uk

It only takes a few minutes — and it could highlight risks you hadn’t considered.