Why India Is Emerging as a Third-Party Breach Hotspot

Over half of Indian vendors experienced at least one third-party breach in the past year, according to SecurityScorecard’s latest report on the cybersecurity posture of Indian suppliers.

Vikram Bhatti, Major Accounts Director for India, and Adam Denyer-Hampton, Senior Director, Global Solutions Architect, examined how the findings expose a critical gap in supply chain resilience across sectors including IT services, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and automotive manufacturing in SecurityScorecard’s recent webinar, Understanding Cyber Risk Across India’s Supply Chain.

“India is no longer just a delivery center. It has become a gateway economy, deeply embedded in the day-to-day operations of multinational enterprises. That role creates significant opportunity, but it also concentrates risk. Every region has its own strengths and vulnerabilities; however, India’s position at the core of critical industries makes visibility and cross-organizational collaboration especially important.” – Vikram Bhatti, Major Accounts Director for India

Read our full India report here.

India’s Central Role and Its Expanding Risk Surface

Bhatti and Denyer-Hampton opened the discussion by emphasizing India’s position in global supply chains.

“India is a cornerstone of the global digital economy. Our findings highlight both strong performance and areas where resilience must improve. Supply chain security is now an operational requirement, and SecurityScorecard is providing the visibility and intelligence to help organizations strengthen that resilience together across industries and borders.” – Adam Denyer-Hampton, Senior Director, Global Solutions Architect.

India’s exposure is reflected in the data: 52.6% of Indian vendors experienced at least one third-party breach in the past year.

Attackers are not always after Indian companies themselves. Instead, they target the access Indian suppliers provide to global clients, making third-party compromise an efficient attack path.

Watch the full webinar here

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Why Indian Vendors Score Either an A or an F

One of the report’s most striking findings was the sharp polarization in security ratings among Indian vendors:

• 26.7% of companies scored an “F” cybersecurity rating, the largest share seen in any dataset to date, while 25.3% scored an “A,” showing a highly polarized risk landscape.
• 52.6% of Indian suppliers suffered a third-party breach while only 10.7% publicly reported one.
• IT services and aerospace sectors had the highest average scores, demonstrating leadership, though IT providers also accounted for 62% of all third-party breaches, reflecting their role as gateways to global clients.
• Pharmaceuticals and medical devices represented 42.1% of publicly reported breaches and 38.5% of ransomware incidents, raising concerns for international healthcare supply chains.
• Semiconductor, electronics and automotive sectors showed elevated credential compromise, typosquatting and malware infections.
• Network security challenges, mismanaged certificates and poor patching, were the most common contributors to low ratings.

According to Bhatti, this disparity is driven by security maturity and investment rather than geography.

Organizations earning strong ratings tend to operate in regulated industries, serve Western or multinational customers, and treat cybersecurity as a core business requirement rather than an IT expense.

Lower-scoring vendors are typically smaller or mid-sized firms that lack budget or security expertise, focus primarily on compliance minimums, and view security as a cost rather than a growth enabler.

“The difference is whether security is embedded into how the business operates or treated as something you deal with only when required,” Bhatti explained.

The Indian IT Paradox: Highly Secure, Frequently Targeted

Indian IT service providers often rank among the most secure suppliers globally. Yet they remain frequent breach victims.

This paradox exists because these organizations sit at the center of global access chains. Attackers may not want their data, but they want their credentials, permissions, and connectivity.

Both speakers stressed that annual audits and static questionnaires are no longer sufficient to account for this paradox. Global organizations must move toward continuous security monitoring, improved visibility into changes in vendor posture, and deeper analysis beyond headline risk scores.

Sub-scores such as patching cadence, endpoint protection, and identity controls often reveal risk earlier than traditional assessments.

Why Pharma and Medical Suppliers Are Under Disproportionate Attack

More than 40% of breaches identified in the report were linked to Indian pharmaceutical and medical device suppliers.

Denyer-Hampton explained that this trend is driven by rapid industry growth and hiring, increased global demand and export reliance, and a growing number of users, credentials, and internet-facing systems.

Ransomware remains the dominant threat, enabled by phishing, credential theft, and unpatched vulnerabilities. As these sectors scale quickly, attackers increasingly target them as high-impact and lower-resistance entry points.

Key Takeaways for Global Organizations

To strengthen cyber resilience across your supply chain, security teams in India should focus on five critical actions:

1. 1. Indian suppliers must  strengthen security, especially among large and mid-sized enterprises, through better backups, network segmentation, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and modern detection tools like Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR).
   2. Vendor selection must go beyond documentation. High-risk indicators include exposed credentials, unpatched vulnerabilities, recent breach history, weak remediation practices, and inconsistent cyber hygiene.
   3. Use cybersecurity ratings to modernize procurement. Incorporate ratings into vendor pre-qualification to quickly screen suppliers, flag high-risk vendors early, and reduce dependence on slow, manual security questionnaires.
   4. Actively manage fourth-party risk. Require visibility into vendors’ subcontractors and technology dependencies, and assess how weaknesses beyond direct suppliers could introduce risk into your environment.
   5. Build ecosystem-level visibility before incidents occur. Map supplier relationships, correlate dependency and exposure data, and evaluate potential blast radius in advance so systemic supply chain risks can be identified and reduced proactively.

Download the Report

Cybercriminals are exploiting supply chain gaps across India’s most connected industries, with over half of India’s vendors experiencing a third-party breach in the last year. Discover what’s putting India’s most vital sectors at risk and how to protect your ecosystem by reading the full report.

📥 The State of Cyber Resilience in India’s Supply Chains