In part one of this NIS2 series, we examined why vendor questionnaires fall short and how third-party breaches impact downstream organizations across Europe. But what happens after a supplier containment phase ends? The long-term danger lies in how attackers leverage exfiltrated supplier data to launch hyper-targeted social engineering attacks against an organization’s employees.

Tens of thousands of European organizations are legally accountable for the security of companies they do not control but on whose services they rely. Under Article 21(2)(d) of the NIS2 Directive, any in-scope entity is required to manage supply chain security, including the security aspects of its relationships with its direct suppliers and service providers. Article 21(3) further specifies that an organization must take each supplier’s specific vulnerabilities into account.