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You probably think your vendor risk program is solid.
You've got security questionnaires for every supplier. Compliance certifications are up to date. Maybe you even require penetration testing for critical vendors. Your vendor risk assessments look impressive in any audit.
But then one of your critical vendors gets compromised and suddenly your business operations grind to a halt.
This is exactly what happened when United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) got attacked in 2025. Their customers—grocery stores and restaurants—couldn't restock shelves or get ingredients. One compromised food distributor. Thousands of affected businesses.
This is what modern supply chain attacks look like. Attackers don't need to hit every target individually—they just need to find the right vendor that everyone depends on.
Here's the uncomfortable reality: you probably can't name all the critical vendors in your supply chain, let alone tell me what happens to your business if they go offline for a week.
Most organizations have vendor risk assessments that look impressive on paper. We check their security questionnaires, review their compliance certifications, and maybe even do a penetration test. But when was the last time you actually tested what happens when a critical vendor gets compromised?
The UNFI attack exposes the difference between vendor security theater and real vendor risk management. It's not enough to know that your vendors have good security—you need to know what happens to your business when their security fails.
Because it will fail. The question isn't whether your critical vendors will get compromised. The question is whether you'll be ready when they do.
The vendor risk blind spot
Most vendor risk programs focus on preventing vendor compromises, not managing the business impact when they happen. We're so focused on making sure vendors have the right security controls that we forget to plan for what happens when those controls don't work.
This is a security management problem, not a technical one. You can't solve vendor risk with better penetration testing or more detailed security questionnaires. You solve it by understanding how vendor dependencies actually affect your business operations and building resilience around those dependencies.
The organizations that handled the UNFI disruption best weren't necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated vendor security programs. They were the ones with proper business continuity planning, alternative supplier relationships, and incident response procedures that accounted for vendor failures.
Building resilient vendor risk management
Here's the reality: most security professionals learned vendor risk management through compliance frameworks and technical assessments. But supply chain attacks like UNFI require a completely different skillset—understanding business dependencies, building operational resilience, and managing cross-organizational incidents.
The professionals who are successfully tackling these challenges aren't just the most technically skilled. They're the ones who understand how to build security programs around business continuity and enterprise risk management.
Whether you realize it or not, you're already being evaluated on this. Every vendor incident, supply chain disruption, or business continuity failure reflects on your security program's maturity and your ability to manage organizational risk.
The question is: are you building these enterprise risk management skills intentionally, or hoping to figure them out during the next vendor crisis?
The fastest way to develop this strategic perspective is through structured security management education. We offer exactly this type of training through our Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) bootcamp and CISM masterclass—programs designed around building security programs that address real business dependencies, not just compliance checkboxes.
Here's what we've learned from working with security professionals: the ones who advance fastest don't just understand technical risk—they learn to manage organizational risk in ways that get executive confidence and support.
That's the difference between someone who passes vendor risk assessments and someone who builds supply chain resilience that actually protects business operations. Or between having a compliance checklist and knowing how to manage vendor relationships that support business continuity.
The next supply chain attack is already in progress. Make sure your organization is ready for it.
Stay secure,
The DestCert Team
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