If there’s ever a perfect time to discuss the dangers of supply chain vulnerabilities, it’s Halloween. With high-profile supply chain mishaps making headlines this year (e.g., Salesloft Drift, various npm compromises, F5) it feels only fitting to address the topic during the spookiest season of all.

Supply chain vs third-party risk

Supply chain and third-party risks are often lumped together for simplicity’s sake, but it is important to understand the distinction. Supply chain risk centers on the availability of an organization’s products, goods, or services and involves entities like suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors. In contrast, third-party risk focuses on the confidentiality and integrity of data and encompasses a broader range of external partners, such as IT service providers or cloud vendors.

TL;DR: Supply chain risk impacts operational delivery, while third-party risk pertains to data security.

So, what does this have to do with Halloween?

If you work in security, there are few things more frightening than the prospect of being on pager duty and suddenly jarred awake by a nightmarish alert that reads something to the effect of: Network down, vendors/customers reporting issues.

Take the latest AWS outage for instance. This sent chills down the spines of many in early October. The far-reaching downstream effects were proverbially akin to Freddy Kreuger’s ever-expanding arms in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The outage affected thousands of companies worldwide and the total cost in losses could reach hundreds of billions of dollars. The point is: Supply chain and third-party security incidents bring to light the very real notion of ecosystem dependencies and what organizations ought to be looking out for.

Beware of the hidden risks in your supply chain

Supply chain and third-party dependencies are vast, interconnected webs full of unexpected linkages and hidden corners, which make them perfect breeding grounds for risks waiting to manifest. Organizations often have limited visibility into their extended ecosystems, leaving them blind to potential vulnerabilities that could come back to haunt them.

👻 Ghostly dependencies

Many organizations fail to map out the upstream and downstream relationships with their vendors, and their vendors’ vendors (fourth-parties). These dependencies can create cascading risks. A real-life example of this is the SolarWinds attack (2020) in which attackers inserted malicious code into an update of the Orion platform, used by more than 30,000 customers, including major enterprises and governments. The eerie part here is that SolarWinds wasn’t compromised by a frontline attacker; the attack was buried deep in its supply chain pipeline, exposing customers to massive risk.

Key takeaway: If you don’t have full visibility into your vendors and their upstream/downstream relations, you’re opening the door to ghosts that can wreak havoc silently.

🧛 Vampires that bleed you dry

Not all vendors are as harmless. Some providers fail to meet regulatory, security, or compliance requirements and could drain your system’s integrity. This could leave your organization exposed to legal and operational risk. Case in point: The Air France and KLM breach (2025) did not originate within the airlines’ core systems, but from a trusted third-party service provider. Since the unnamed vendor had privileged access, the vendor compromise created a pathway into the airlines’ customer data ecosystem.

Key takeaway: Your supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. By shining your light on risky partnerships, you can cut out those that could potentially bleed you of trust and resources.

🧟 Zombie systems wandering the supply chain

Outdated systems can “rise from the dead” to haunt supply chains. Even if your organization is running updated and patched systems, your vendors—or their vendors—may have failed to keep up with their own cybersecurity hygiene. Old medical devices, for instance, have been cited as common root causes of supply chain attacks in the healthcare industry.

Key takeaway: Vendors may rely on legacy infrastructure, hardware, and software, creating weak links in the supply chain ecosystem. Regular vendor risk evaluations are necessary to identify toxic dependencies.

Exorcising your supply chain of potential risk

The supply chain can feel like a haunted house full of hidden corridors and unseen dangers, but there are things your organization can do to fortify your defenses and allow you to sleep peacefully at night.

• Perform vendor mapping rituals: Use mapping tools to visualize and understand the data that flows through your supply chain.
• Conduct continuous recon: Implement ongoing monitoring tools to look for new vulnerabilities, breaches, or changes in vendor security postures.
• Ghostbusters for legacy systems: Make aggressive patching and end-of-life management a priority, even for third parties.
• Test your defenses against the ghouls: Conduct regular penetration tests and tabletop incident simulation specifically around vendors and supply chain risks.

Your supply chain doesn’t have to be consumed by ghastly vulnerabilities and lurking risks. As defenders, we have the power to flip the script from horror to triumph. This Halloween, trade fear for resilience by shining a light into the shadows of your supply chain ecosystem to keep the monsters at bay.