One of the most extensive cyberattacks on supply chains has been perpetrated by hackers. Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times report that Kaseya, an IT management software company, was hacked into a ransomware attack. The ransomware compromised Kaseya's VSA remote maintenance tool. Although the company claimed that only 40 customers were affected initially, security firm Huntress stated that three managed service providers had been compromised and over 200 companies have been impacted.This number could be even higher. Huntress pointed out that eight cloud service providers were affected, which could have an impact on many other firms. Coop, a Swedish supermarket chain, closed nearly 800 stores after one its contractors was identified as a target.Kaseya stated that it had found the source of the security problem and was working on a fix. The patch would be tested thoroughly. The company advised customers to close down VSA servers until the update could be installed. Kaseya stated that software-as-a service customers are "never at risk", but the company did take down this functionality as a precaution.Although it's unclear who was behind the attack Huntress linked the campaign to Russia-linked REvil, which attacked JBS as a beef supplier.This is just the latest in a series of ransomware attacks that have been highly publicized, including JBS or Colonial Pipeline. This incident also follows large-scale SolarWinds hacks that were attributed to Nobelium. It's clear that online security is rapidly becoming a significant issue in the supply chain.Kaseya's data breach highlights the dangers associated with relying too heavily on one company’s software platform. Although the number of clients directly affected is low, it appears that the ripple effect caused by the disruption in the supply chain may have had a detrimental impact on other companies. This situation could not be improved until Kaseya-like providers are more secure or there is more competition to reduce the damage.
