Automation and connectivity for secure supply chains

Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2025: Over 15 years driving B2B data integration and security. Technology is only half of success; the other half lies in people and making the right decisions.

The challenge of digital supply chain security

In an increasingly interconnected global environment, supply chains are now the operational heart of sectors as diverse as finance, industry, and logistics. Their success depends not only on process efficiency but on the ability to exchange information agilely and securely among partners, suppliers, and customers.

The problem: over 60% of security breaches originate from third-party vulnerabilities. Each B2B integration represents a potential attack surface. A compromised supplier can become the entry point to critical systems, as demonstrated by cases like SolarWinds, Target, or Maersk.

B2B Automation: Reducing human error and risk exposure

B2B data flow automation is already a security differentiator. We're not just talking about moving files: it's about integrating heterogeneous systems from multiple actors in real-time, minimizing human error and guaranteeing traceability of every transaction.

Security benefits of automation:

1. Elimination of manual processes that introduce errors and vulnerabilities
2. Mandatory encryption in every transfer, with no exceptions for "urgency"
3. Complete traceability for audits and post-incident forensic analysis
4. Anomaly detection in transfer patterns and supplier behavior
5. Automated response to unauthorized access attempts or suspicious behavior

This connectivity enables faster decision-making, reduced response times, and cost optimization, but above all, it significantly reduces the window of threat exposure.

Secure MFT and EDI: Technology designed for hostile environments

After over 15 years of experience in integration, MFT, B2B, and EDI projects and services, we know that technology is only half—or less, in fact—of success. The other half lies in the human factor: constant coordination between business and IT teams, shared vision of objectives, and the ability of authorized voices to make the right decisions at the right time.

Critical differences between basic transfer and enterprise MFT:

Traditional transfer (FTP, basic SFTP):

1. Optional encryption or inconsistent implementation
2. Credentials shared among multiple users
3. No activity visibility or alerts
4. Manual or non-existent auditing
5. Files in clear text during processing

Enterprise-grade Managed File Transfer (MFT):

1. Mandatory AES-256 + TLS 1.3 encryption in transit and at rest
2. Certificate-based authentication + MFA
3. SIEM integration for event correlation
4. Automatic compliance (PCI-DSS, GDPR, DORA, NIS2)
5. Anomaly detection and suspicious behavior monitoring

Secure EDI in regulated sectors:

Traditional EDI protocols were not designed with cybersecurity in mind. The solution is not to abandon them, but to implement them within secure tunnels:

1. AS2 with digital certificates: Signature and encryption for each document
2. OFTP2 with TLS: European protocol with integrated security
3. REST APIs with OAuth 2.0: Granular access control and short-lived tokens
4. Mandatory schema validation: Prevention of injections and malicious payloads

Operational and security risks without proper automation

Not only in financial institutions, but also in companies across all sectors, dependence on manual processes, lack of visibility, or resistance to adopting secure integration standards end up generating critical bottlenecks:

Exposure to specific threats:

1. Man-in-the-Middle: Interception of communications without adequate encryption
2. Credential stuffing: Reuse of compromised credentials
3. Malware in EDI files: Malicious payloads in seemingly legitimate XML or JSON documents
4. Lateral access: Compromised supplier as gateway to internal network
5. Data exfiltration: Unauthorized transfers without detection
6. Ransomware: Propagation through integrations without segmentation

Operational and regulatory consequences:

1. Delays in audits and compliance processes
2. Supply interruptions affecting business continuity
3. Unnecessary exposure to cybersecurity risks
4. Regulatory sanctions (DORA, NIS2, GDPR) for inadequate third-party management
5. Loss of customer trust and reputational damage

Implementing Zero Trust in B2B ecosystems

B2B integration and Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions address these challenges by combining automation, advanced encryption, continuous monitoring, and compliance with regulatory standards.

Zero Trust principles applied to supply chains:

1. Microsegmentation by supplier: Each business partner in its own network segment, limiting the blast radius in case of compromise.
2. Continuous verification: Authenticating once is not enough. Each transaction validates identity through certificates, short-lived tokens, and behavior analysis.
3. Least privilege: Granular permissions per specific data flow, without access to unrelated systems.
4. Payload inspection: Schema validation, malicious signature analysis, and sandboxing when necessary.
5. Telemetry and response: Enriched logs integrated with SIEM, anomaly alerts, and automated blocking capability.

The result is a substantial reduction in operational risk: less exposure to cyberattacks, fewer service interruptions, and a more solid experience for all links in the chain.

Compliance as implementation driver

Regulations that make B2B security mandatory:

1. DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act): Requires financial institutions to manage digital supplier risk with demonstrable controls.
2. NIS2: Critical sectors must secure digital supply chains. Fines up to €10M or 2% of global revenue.
3. PCI-DSS 4.0: Expanded requirements on managing suppliers that process payment data.
4. GDPR: Processing responsibility includes breaches in processors and suppliers.

For CISOs and security leaders, implementing secure MFT and EDI is not just good practice: it's a regulatory requirement with measurable financial and legal consequences.

Reference architecture for secure integrations

Recommended stack:

1. B2B integration gateway in DMZ: Traffic inspection with IDS/IPS, WAF for APIs, DDoS protection.
2. Hardened MFT platform: At-rest encryption with HSM/KMS, mandatory in-transit encryption, certificate-based authentication.
3. Validation and translation: Secure format parsing, mandatory schema validation, input sanitization.
4. Segmented integration: Internal APIs with separate authentication, rate limiting per supplier, detailed logs to SIEM.
5. Observability: Health dashboards, ML alerts for deviations, automated runbooks.

The human factor in the security equation

Experience implementing B2B integration projects across multiple sectors demonstrates that the most advanced technology fails in the face of inadequate organizational decisions.

Frequent problems observed:

1. MFT projects disabled because they "slow down processes," without measuring risk
2. Digital certificates expired for months due to lack of clear ownership
3. Hardcoded credentials in "temporary" scripts that have been in production for years
4. Shadow IT: suppliers using insecure tools because the official process is complex

What really works:

1. Security champions in integration teams: Bridge between IT, Security, and Business speaking the same language.
2. Specific threat modeling: Regular exercises of "what if this supplier gets compromised?"
3. B2B incident response playbooks: Clear procedures to isolate compromised suppliers.
4. Relevant metrics: MTTR in supply chain, percentage of encrypted integrations, monitoring coverage.
5. Executive buy-in: Budget and decisions that back up words about security priority.

NEVERHACK: your cyber performance partner

At Neverhack, we don't seek to earn our clients' trust with empty commercial messages, but with facts: working every day so that technology and people achieve the greatest efficiency together. If you want more information about our supply chain solutions, don't hesitate to contact us.