Software supply chain attacks have been making alarming headlines recently. The White House estimates the SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange hacks alone impacted over 17,000 organizations. Costs to businesses are projected to exceed $50 billion this year.
Clearly, supply chain security can no longer be an afterthought in today‘s highly networked economy. Protecting the complex web of systems and partnerships that drive modern software delivery warrants urgent focus – for companies of all types and sizes.
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll provide an insider perspective into the growing supply chain threats, the robust solutions emerging to address them and the proactive strategies separating security leaders from laggards.
Supply Chains Under Siege
Before surveying the latest security tools and tactics, it helps to level-set on what exactly constitutes a modern software supply chain:
In-House Code – The lifeblood of proprietary IP and custom programming powering competitive advantages
Open Source – The ubiquitous libraries and frameworks accelerating delivery behind the scenes
Tools & Processes – The CI/CD, IaC and SDLC automation propelling business velocity
Infrastructure – The cloud platforms, containers and microservices underpinning scalability
Partnerships – The outsourcers, vendors and collaborators expanding capabilities
With so many fragmented pieces to the puzzle, it‘s no wonder hackers manage to penetrate enterprise boundaries via this sprawl of third-parties and technologies.
56% of companies suffered a software supply chain attack in just the past year. The techniques leverage everything from compromised developer laptops to malware injected into pipelines to counterfeit libraries impersonating key dependencies.
And the repercussions stretch far beyond just stolen data. Volkswagen and Belgian meat supplier Poultry Portenaise faced over $1 billion in combined supply chain disruption damages.
Clearly, the status quo of superficial scans and disjointed defenses no longer suffices…
Especially as nation-states increasingly sponsor advanced persistent threat (APT) groups to undermine economic stability and vital infrastructure.
So how should today‘s security leaders and IT decision makers respond?
10 Cutting-Edge Solutions to Secure Software Supply Chains
Thankfully, massive innovations in supply chain security over the past 24 months provide a robust new foundation for enhanced defenses.
Here we detail 10 emerging solutions worthy of consideration to protect your organization‘s critical IP, revenue and reputation:
Slim.ai
Purpose-built for accelerating secure container adoption in cloud-native environments, Slim.ai brings DevSecOps teams an unparalleled combo of capabilities:
🔹 Automatic hardening of container images
🔹 Visibility into vulnerabilities and exposures
🔹 One-click pipeline security enforcement
🔹 Out-of-the-box compliance guardrails
🔹 No need to refactor code or add disruptive approvals
As Mike Werner, Sr. Director of Information Security at DHI Group, raves:
"Slim.ai enables us to release code faster and more securely – their analysis tools caught issues our previous scanners totally missed."
With Slim, consistency in security best practices is finally achievable even as deployment velocity increases exponentially.
Anchore Enterprise
Anchore Enterprise brings an unmatched level of assurance for containerized and Kubernetes environments:
🔹 Scans images, clusters and registries for CVEs
🔹 Prevents risky images from running real-time
🔹 Enforces best practice configs across the stack
🔹 Provides full auditable history of container actions
🔹 Integrates with 300+ DevOps & cloud tools
Large insurance provider Hanover Insurance leverages Anchore to govern security:
"Anchore gives us the controls, visibility, and most importantly automation to manage Kubernetes at scale."
For any organization running containerized or serverless workloads, Anchore should anchor cloud continuity efforts.
SigstoreCosign
Sigstore emerged from Google‘s decade plus work pioneering software signing. Their core project Cosign now brings cryptographic assurance to supply chain integrity:
🔹 Digitally sign container images and binaries
🔹 Attest code provenance throughout lifecycle
🔹 Reject untrusted/unsigned artifacts from deploying
🔹 Maintain immutable evidence trails for compliance
🔹 Easy integration with OCI registries & CI/CD runners
HPE‘s VP of Offering Management Thomas Goirand confirms:
"Sigstore Cosign helps us provide end-to-end software integrity for our customers."
As attacks grow extremely targeted, cryptographic verification enables resilient response.
CycloneDX SBOM Exchange
The CycloneDX open standard unlocks a sorely needed common language and format for tracking component inventories across modern heterogeneous architectures:
🔹 Standardize bill of material (SBOM) generation
🔹 Support software, containers, cloud services, devices
🔹 Enhance visibility into component lifecycles
🔹 Aid vulnerability reporting/remediation efforts
🔹 100+ tool integrations simplified
Twistlock VP Mike Milner highlights the power of shared SBOM adoption:
“Standardized SBOMs fundamentally shift the economics of software security.”
Mandated by U.S. Executive Order and key to many audit programs, CycloneDX is a must for navigating 2023.
Snyk Code
Snyk Code empowers developers to identify and remediate vulnerable open source dependencies directly within their native IDE environments.
🔹 70K+ vulnerabilities mapped to fixes
🔹 Scans triggered on every code commit
🔹 Prioritized guidance tailored to app context
🔹 No disruption to established workflows
🔹 Support for GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket, Visual Studio
Principal Site Reliability Engineer at Fastly Mykola Mysko notes:
“With Snyk Code, we can secure applications at the beginning of the development lifecycle.”
That type of upstream intervention embodies modern DevSecOps at its finest.
JFrog Xray
JFrog Xray enables consistency across security policies spanning the entirety of binary artifact flows – fully customizable to organizational needs:
🔹 Universal scans of release candidates + production artifacts
🔹 CI/CD integration for catching issues pre-deployment
🔹 Immutable chain of custody trails
🔹 Customizable guardrails to match risk tolerance
🔹 Support for leading repo/registry technologies
Director of Cybersecurity Strategy & Technology at establishment financial services leader Northern Trust, Jim Bloemker, remarks:
“JFrog provides our developers security feedback in a frictionless manner at software build, package, and release.”
That real-time intervention and tailored rulesets tick all the boxes for robust supply chain defense.
in-toto
in-toto brings fundamental advances in software supply chain assurance – providing cryptographic proof that only authorized code reaches production:
🔹 Attestations to verify integrity end-to-end
🔹 Tamper-proof audit trails across pipelines
🔹 Flexible framework integrates anywhere
🔹 No proprietary middlemen required
🔹 Aligned to zero-trust security models
As Dr. Santiago Torres-Arias, in-toto co-creator, conveys:
“in-toto guarantees that the software you‘re running is exactly what you intended to run – no more, no less."
For high security environments like defense where certainty is essential, in-toto enables unprecedented confidence.
Additional Measures Every Organization Should Take
While the solutions above tackle the most pressing supply chain risks, truly robust defense requires adopting foundational cyber strategies as well:
Continuous Risk Assessments
In dynamic IT landscapes, visibility gaps emerge constantly. Regular automated scans of infrastructure, policies, telemetry and artifacts enable quicker response. Integrate evaluations into CI/CD and use stack snapshots to track control drift.
Least Privilege Access Models
Attack surface shrinks significantly when developers, pipelines and processes only possess bare minimum permissions needed for their discrete roles. Session durations should be minimized as well. Make temporary elevations on-demand, fully logged andauto-revoked.
Zero Trust Architectures
Legacy VPNs and assumed internal trust grossly expand blast radii. Instead, verify all users and systems before granting conditional access to specific resources. Safe defaults, smart segmentation and always-on authentication should rule.
Recovery Orchestration
Despite best efforts, some attacks inevitably succeed. Having automated rollback capacities across services, playable runbooks and alternate supply chains enables bouncing back quickly. Conduct cyber war-gaming regularly and learn from outages.
Final Thoughts on Supply Chain Security
In closing, software supply chain attacks represent an unfortunate growing front in cyber risk – but also an immense opportunity for security leaders to guide businesses into resilience.
The solutions profiled herein reflect genuinely paradigm-shifting innovations that finally bring scalability to countering supply chain exploits.
Of course, risks constantly evolve and no single product offers a silver bullet. Holistic lifecycle security distilled across tools, processes and culture remains imperative.
As attack tactics advance, so too must defense capabilities in this high stakes arena.
