Manufacturers Face Rising Supply Chain Risk from Unmonitored Vendor Access

In the era of Industry 4.0, manufacturing relies on digital integration to keep production running, from Industrial IoT (IIoT) tools and technologies to cloud-based supply chain platforms. But with every new vendor connection comes a hidden exposure: third-party and privileged access. Cybercriminals know it, which is why vendor access control and credential management are now strategic business priorities.

Imprivata data shows that organizations manage access for an average of 20 vendors, yet only half maintain a comprehensive inventory. The blind spots run deeper: 59% don’t monitor third-party access at all, while 55% of those using privileged access tools admit they don’t trust them to reduce risk. Fourth-party exposure, when a vendor’s vendor connects to your systems, compounds the problem.

Manufacturers are especially at risk, as noted in a recent article by The Business News. Shared workstations, legacy OT networks, and just-in-time production models leave little room for error. Imprivata research reveals that 42% of manufacturers experienced third-party related breaches in the past year, with 35% of those incidents stemming from excessive vendor privileges.

A third-party data breach can cascade from contractors into production lines, disrupting operations and exposing intellectual property. Meanwhile, attackers are industrializing access theft. Privileged credentials are openly traded on the dark web, fueling ransomware campaigns that leap between suppliers, customers, and critical industries.

“Dark-web marketplaces now attract millions of daily visitors, and they list everything from domain-admin credentials to turnkey zero-day exploits exactly the way a legitimate retailer lists SKUs,” said Imprivata Chief Technology Officer Joel Burleson-Davis in a recent MSSP Alert article. “That liquidity lets attackers chain breaches together: one hospital’s stolen vendor VPN account can finance the ransomware campaign that compromises the next manufacturer. In other words, access itself is the product, and its market behaves like any other high-margin supply chain - buy in bulk, repackage, resell.” 

Manual processes only make matters worse. IT and security teams report spending 134 hours every week investigating third-party and privileged access risks. This is time that could be reduced with workflow automation and centralized controls.

The path forward is clear: enforce least privilege access for all third-party contractors, adopt vendor risk management frameworks aligned with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), and implement continuous audit monitoring that tracks who accessed what, when, and why. By layering workflow automation, multi-factor authentication, and just-in-time credentials, manufacturers can shrink the attack surface without stalling productivity.

“Every vendor should get just-in-time access to the one system they need—nothing more, nothing longer,” said Burleson-Davis.

In today’s interconnected supply chains, securing your factory means securing every identity in your ecosystem. Learn more about how to protect against unauthorized access with vendor privileged access management.