In the last five years, the attack surface for most businesses has quietly extended well beyond their own networks. Suppliers, logistics partners, software vendors, contract manufacturers: each one represents a connection point that attackers can probe, pressure, or compromise. The 2020 SolarWinds breach, in which malicious code embedded in a trusted software update propagated to thousands of downstream organizations, demonstrated just how far this exposure runs. That single event affected government agencies, major financial institutions, and critical infrastructure operators who believed their own perimeters were well-defended.
