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The key to supply chain security: How to protect your data

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Sales and product manager, CLIQ Systems

September 27, 2017

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Whitepaper: Enhancing security, resilience and efficiency across a range of industries

The landscape of security and access control has changed markedly over the last decade with the introduction of technology that allows for traceability and time management of mechanical keys.

This has changed the conversation and passkeys, cryptographic keys and encryption keys are all becoming more commonplace. By default, we’ve become obsessed with cybersecurity and high-profile cases of data theft and loss are rife.

Research shows that 93% of large organisations and 87% of small businesses experienced a security breach in 2013, with affected companies experiencing roughly 50% more breaches than in 2012.

Although keys provide access to critical assets, including servers that hold customer data, and offices where customers’ accounts are managed, we see many organisations that don’t know how many keys they have in circulation, or where they are at any given time.

The supply chain

For organisations handling any kind of data, great importance must be placed on resilience within the supply chain. When considering exposure to risk, physical supply chain management presents a number of unique challenges.

Add to this the complex risks that cybersecurity poses, and ensuring a safe supply chain environment can seem like an impossible task. How ‘stable’ are your suppliers, do you know where they get their products from, how safe and protected are their assets, and how robust are their own relationships with their suppliers?

Mitigating risk can involve identifying dependencies and vulnerabilities that can impact on supply chains. Increasing the visibility of these areas allows organisations to anticipate their impact and plan for contingencies.

Data protection

When it comes to the security of your data, areas that need to be considered include:

  • What information are you sharing within your supply chain?
  • Where is the data located?
  • What are your suppliers doing with that information?
  • Are they reselling that data?
  • Is there a data controller and processing agreement in place?
  • Are they prepared enough to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? Enforcement date: 25 May 2018.
  • How would you deal with a data breach?

The GDPR is a binding legislative act that will come into force across the EU (including the UK) next year. The regulation seeks to harmonise inconsistent data protection laws currently operating in the EU’s member states and aims to facilitate the secure, free flow of data.

If an organisation fails to comply with the regulation it could be fined up to 4% of the company’s global annual turnover – and could severely damage its reputation.

The secure option

To combat these risks, Abloy UK offers a high level of both physical protection, with its high-quality locking solutions and data protection using only accredited software and infrastructure providers, compliant with European and National standards for physically secure key systems.

PROTEC2 CLIQ, an electronic key system where all power is retained by the key or locks themselves, requires no wiring; users can change permissions, profiles, schedules and validity and revoke use at the ‘CLIQ’ of a button; organisations can comprehensively track and audit who has access to which locations, when they had access and how often; and uses three factor authentications – standard 256-bit encryption, advanced encryption and industry standard SHA-2 SSL certificates.

When it comes to data security within your supply chain don’t leave anything to chance, mitigate the potential risks in advance and only use suppliers you can be sure will keep your data secure.

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