What will happen in terms of supply chain complexity and cybersecurity industries as 2023 moves out of January? These concerns impact upon day-to-day operations, product availability and critically, customer service. Considering related areas for Digital Journal is Jon Geater, Chief Product and Technology Officer at RKVST.
Controlling risk
In terms of risk assessment, Geater notes: “Software vendors can no longer hide their shortcomings, and software users can no longer hide from their responsibilities if they choose to deploy something inappropriate.” In other words, systems are potentially vulnerable to cybersecurity risks.
He notes that progress has been made: “Although there’s still a way to go, we are definitely now on a road on which the digital supply chain is recognized as being as critical as the physical one: suppliers must supply quality, and consumers must take control of their own risk.”
2023 trends
In terms of general trends, Geater observes: “Businesses in 2023 will gain a greater appreciation for what’s possible when they implement integrity, transparency and trust in a standard, automated way to decrease their software supply chain risk.”
These important attributes are elaborated upon: “And they will take that understanding and experience to begin exploring how they can then apply this same model to the physical world in areas such as nuclear waste tracking.”
Supply chain attacks
Supply chains are highly complex processes and require careful planning. Geater states in relation to supply chain mapping: “It’s not all about ‘supply chain attacks.’ Actually, most of the problems come from mistakes or oversights originating in the supply chain which then open the target to traditional cyberattacks. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. I believe that the bulk of discoveries arising from improvements in supply chain visibility next year will highlight that most threats arise from mistake, not malice.”
Looking back at macroeconomics in 2022
For the wider economic landscape, Geater observes: “The political and macroeconomic situations are even worse than most people predicted. This is having a cooling effect on innovation, with people focusing more on cost cutting and efficiencies. This doesn’t diminish the importance of the core technologies we’re working on. But it does shift the emphasis from new use cases (e.g. active cyber defense) to improving existing use cases (e.g. more efficient audits).”
