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Security5 min

Supply chain attacks: why your software is putting you at risk

You update regularly. You use well-known libraries. You host on a major cloud provider. And yet you are still vulnerable — because attackers have learned to strike exactly where you are least watchful: in the tools you trust.

Supply ChainOpen SourceRisk

Attack via the service provider

In the SolarWinds attack of 2020, 18,000 organizations — including US agencies — were compromised because attackers injected malicious code directly into a legitimate software update. Nobody installed anything suspicious. Everyone just ran their regular updates.

The npm problem: millions of dependencies, little control

An average Node.js project has over 1,000 transitive dependencies. Few are actively maintained. In 2023, 18% of npm packages were abandoned. Every abandoned package is a potential entry point via typosquatting or account takeover.

What SMEs can do concretely

No company can audit all dependencies. But: running `npm audit` or `pip-audit` in CI/CD pipelines, Software Composition Analysis for critical services, and a clear list of explicitly approved external services per team cost little and meaningfully reduce risk.

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