Enhancing Supply Chain Cybersecurity with Blockchain

Sammanfattning: Supply chains have become targets for hostile cyber actors. Motivations for cyber crimes include intellectual property theft, customer data theft and industrial espionage. The cyber threat landscape in which businesses operate is constantly evolving. The consequences of a successful cyber attack can be devastating for a business. Increasing the resilience of the supply chain in the digital environment is a complex task because the supply chain consists of different organisations with varying levels of cybersecurity defence capability. Orchestrating cybersecurity improvement in a supply chain requires visibility into the security posture of each participating organisation and this is generally lacking. This thesis studies the potential use of blockchain for enhancing the cybersecurity of the supply chain. The study simulates a permissioned blockchain among supply chain members to monitor digital assets important for cybersecurity. The blockchain is analysed to extract insights from the perspective of a supply chain cybersecurity oversight role. The study finds that a blockchain can provide visibility by sharing cybersecurity-related information among supply chain members. It can also provide a digital forensic record for incident response and forensic investigations.