Use Case | Cyber Risk Intelligence in the Supply Chain – Identify the Gaps Before They Escalate

UNR 155 requires “… The vehicle manufacturer shall be required to demonstrate how their CSMS will manage dependencies that may exist with contracted suppliers, service providers or manufacturer’s sub-organizations in regards of the requirements of….”

In the automotive industry, The supply chain is structured typically in Tier1, Tier2,…

Security Supply Chain Management is getting more important as their biggest blind spot is the SW supply chain. See two boxes.

Thousands of processes and suppliers interact like tightly interlocked gears – or puzzle pieces. But what happens when one is missing? Focus is often placed on large, well-known suppliers. Yet the real risks hide where no one is looking – in the mid-tier, small vendors, or niche components.

This is where our approach to Cyber Risk Intelligence comes in: We reveal those hidden gaps before they become real threats.

FOR SECURITY PROS

72%

…of cybersecurity professionals say “Software supply chain is their biggest blind spot”

FOR BAD ACTORS

1300%

…Increase of software supply chain vulnerabilities in the past three years

Challenge:

In the automotive industry, supply chains are not just complex – they are vulnerable. And while the top 10 suppliers are usually under scrutiny, many risk-relevant partners remain under the radar. Especially the 10–20% ‘forgotten critical’ suppliers – not prominent but essential – pose a serious and often hidden threat.

Typical structure of supplier related on Cybersecurity

Typical Challenges:

  • Cybersecurity is considered too late in the RFQ process

  • Auditing 1,000+ suppliers is not scalable

  • Supplier evaluations are manual, slow, and rarely up-to-date

  • Questionnaires rarely reflect actual cyber risk context

The asvin Cyber Thread Intelligence Management Approach:

Our approach combines inside-out analysis (internal criticality, CSMS, self-assessments) with outside-in intelligence (darknet, OSINT, publicly reported incidents, ratings). Supported by a semantic LLM model and dynamic knowledge graph, this provides a real-time risk landscape across the entire supply chain.

Concretely, this means:

  • Risk-based prioritization: Who is really critical – beyond the usual suspects?

  • Early integration in the RFQ process: Cybersecurity becomes part of your contracting strategy, not just a compliance burden.

  • Automated audits & ratings: Questionnaires are enriched with context data. Risk weighting drives evaluations.

  • Avoid recalls or IT outages caused by indirectly affected suppliers

  • Cut manual audit costs while improving quality

  • Strengthen purchasing negotiations with solid cyber intelligence

  • Accelerate safe time-to-market for new E/E components

Conclusion:

If you’re still managing your supply chain with outdated spreadsheets and generic questionnaires, you’re playing with fire. With asvin Cyber Threat Intelligence Management, you gain visibility, risk awareness, and strategic control – ready to face the realities of a connected automotive world.

Discover more Use Cases