A supplier’s work laptop can sit a long way from your office and still have a route into your business.
It might belong to the engineer who maintains your stock system. Or the contractor who supports your warehouse software. Their access helps keep orders moving, right up until somebody else gets hold of it.
The brief’s reference to an Axios report linking a compromised engineer’s laptop to a Binance hack raises a useful boardroom question: what assurance do you have about the devices your suppliers use to access your systems?
The reported incident shouldn’t be stretched into conclusions about exactly what happened. But the business issue deserves attention. Supplier access creates dependencies that a contract alone can’t secure.
Start with the access your business depends on
Think about an ordinary working week. An external technician connects to investigate a dispatch problem. A software supplier checks an integration. A contractor downloads a file to troubleshoot an error.
Each task can be legitimate. Each can also involve a device, an account and access to information that matters to your business.
If that device is compromised, an attacker may be able to misuse an existing connection or steal credentials. The scope depends on the permissions and safeguards in place.
That’s why supply chain security needs to include the working arrangements behind the software. Knowing which company supplies your system is only the beginning. You also need to understand how its people reach it.
Put supplier access on a business-owned register
Ask for a current list of suppliers with access to your systems. Give each relationship a named owner inside your business.
That owner doesn’t need to understand every technical setting. They should know why access exists, which business process relies on it and who can authorise changes.
For each supplier, record the systems they can reach, the type of access granted and when it was last reviewed. Include subcontractors where they’re involved.
An account called “support” is a poor substitute for a named person. Shared accounts make it harder to establish who did what and to remove one person’s access cleanly.
Review access when contracts change, projects finish or supplier staff move on. A successful handover should include closing doors that are no longer needed.
Ask what happens on the laptop
A supplier saying its laptops have antivirus gives you one piece of information. You still need to know how suspicious activity is spotted and handled.
Endpoint monitoring means watching devices such as laptops for signs of compromise. Depending on the service, that can include detecting unusual behaviour and helping a responder investigate.
The important questions are practical. Which devices are covered? Who receives alerts? When are those alerts reviewed? What happens if the affected laptop has an active connection to your systems?
There’s a sizeable difference between software generating a warning and somebody taking responsibility for it. An unread alert has all the protective qualities of an unread email.
Ask for evidence that fits the level of access involved. A supplier with privileged access to your core systems warrants closer scrutiny than one sending you a monthly brochure.
Agree the response before anybody needs it
Monitoring is useful only when people know what to do next.
Your supplier arrangement should explain how a suspected compromise will be reported, who will contact you and what information they’ll provide. It should also identify who can suspend remote access while the issue is investigated.
Make those arrangements specific enough to use under pressure. “We’ll notify you promptly” leaves plenty of room for disagreement when orders are waiting.
Keep emergency contact details somewhere you can reach if your usual systems are unavailable. Confirm who covers absences and out-of-hours incidents where your operations require it.
Then walk through a simple scenario together: a supplier reports that an engineer’s laptop may be compromised after accessing your stock system. Agree who checks the activity records and who tells the operations team what to expect.
Keep permissions proportionate to the job
A supplier investigating a printing fault rarely needs permanent administrator access across your business.
Give people the access required for their work, with separate accounts for privileged tasks where appropriate. Use multi-factor authentication and consider time-limited access for occasional maintenance.
These controls serve different purposes. Monitoring helps detect suspicious activity. Restricted permissions limit what an account can reach. Authentication adds protection when somebody tries to sign in.
None offers a universal guarantee. Together, they can reduce your exposure and give responders clearer options when something looks wrong.
You need to understand which supplier connections could affect dispatch, customer records or other essential work.
Measure something the board can act on
A dashboard full of green symbols can be reassuring without being particularly informative.
Choose measures that reveal decisions you need to make. Can you identify every supplier with privileged access? Has each connection got an owner? Are overdue access reviews being resolved?
For devices you manage, establish whether monitoring coverage is complete and whether alerts have a clear response owner. For supplier-managed devices, document the assurance you’ve requested and any gaps you’ve accepted.
Some gaps may take time to close. Give each one an owner and a review date. That makes the remaining exposure visible to the people responsible for the business.
Make one useful check this week
Choose the supplier whose access matters most to your day-to-day operations. Ask your internal owner to review that access with your IT provider.
Confirm how the supplier connects, what they can reach and how you’d be told about a compromised device. Record any unanswered questions and agree who will resolve them.
That’s a manageable starting point for a wider review. It turns a distant security headline into a practical check on your own supply chain.
If you’d like to talk through supplier access and endpoint monitoring, speak to us at Morse Networks.
Let’s spank your naughty IT. https://morsenetworks.co.uk.
Sources
- Binance halts trading after biggest-ever crypto hack — Axios · 29 Oct 2026