On September 20, 2025, a ransomware attack on Collins Aerospace disrupted check-in and boarding systems at major European airports, including London Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin, causing flight delays and cancellations that stranded passengers.
This wasn’t an anomaly. Whether in aviation, healthcare, finance, or virtually any other industry, organizations depend on complex webs of suppliers and service providers. When one link in that supply chain fails, the impact can cascade outward, causing substantial operational disruptions and eroding trust.
Vendor Risk is Taking Off
Third-party breaches aren’t edge cases. They’re now attackers’ preferred entry point. Even if you’ve hardened your own environment, a supplier’s gap in security can expose your business just the same.
- 91% of CISOs in the 2025 Panorays CISO Survey report that third-party cybersecurity incidents increased in the past year.
- 31% of all cyber insurance claims in 2024 were tied to third-party risk, including vendor-related outages and ransomware, according to Resilience’s claims data.
- Third-party vulnerabilities are now the preferred entry points for attackers, and ransomware affiliates are aggressively targeting vendor ecosystems, per Black Kite’s 2025 Third-Party Breach Report.
Why Third-Party Risk Creates So Much Turbulence
- Hidden dependencies: Most organizations have limited visibility beyond their direct vendors. The “nth-party problem” means that a supplier’s supplier may expose you without your knowledge.
- Cascading impact: A breach at one supplier can ripple across multiple industries. Think SolarWinds or MOVEit, where one compromise affected thousands.
- Regulatory and financial fallout: Beyond remediation, organizations face the costs of regulatory penalties, lost business, insurance claims, and reputational harm.
Lessons from Collins Aerospace
The Collins Aerospace ransomware attack highlighted the fragility of interconnected supply chains. This one vendor compromise disrupted thousands of flights across Europe. Some airports reported over 1,000 computers corrupted, requiring manual recovery. Airlines, passengers, and connected services experienced days of disruption.
This was third-party risk in action, demonstrating that even highly fortified sectors like aviation can be undermined by a supplier compromise.
Out-of-Band Communications: Your Backup Flight Path
When ransomware rendered Collins Aerospace’s automated systems inoperable, airports had to coordinate manual processes across multiple teams and external partners. During such crises, primary communication channels, like email, chat, or video conferencing, may be unreliable or compromised, making backup communication channels essential for incident response.
Why Out-of-Band Matters
- Redundancy: Keeps response moving even if corporate identity systems, networks, or messaging tools are down.
- Integrity: Prevents attackers from eavesdropping or hijacking communications.
- Coordination: Provides a single secure hub where IT, security, business teams, and external vendors can align.
Beyond Comms: Full Incident Lifecycle Support
Modern OOB platforms like CYGNVS extend beyond communications to support the full incident response lifecycle:
- Prepare: Import or generate playbooks tailored to third-party scenarios.
- Practice: Run realistic tabletop exercises that include vendors and vendor failures.
- Respond: Coordinate across internal and external teams in one secure workspace.
- Report: Capture data automatically to meet regulatory reporting requirements.
This combination of readiness, execution, and defensibility turns OOB from a redundancy into a resilience multiplier.
Final Approach: Reducing Risk Proactively
The Collins Aerospace ransomware attack underscored what every CISO already knows: third-party risk is no longer peripheral. It’s central to cyber resilience.
You can’t control every supplier, but you can:
- Strengthen vendor risk management programs.
- Rehearse vendor outage scenarios.
- Establish out-of-band communications before the emergency hits.
Third-party risk may be inevitable, but with preparation, secure communications, and practice, you can reduce chaos and limit damage when the weakest link breaks.
