Compliance Requirements For An Eclinical Supply Chain Management Platform

By Author: Giselle Bates
Total Articles: 23
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Code, libraries, configurations, open source and proprietary binaries, container dependencies, and plugins are all components of the software supply chain. Build servers, assemblers, compilers, source code repositories, security tools, and log analysis tools are also included. The organization, techniques, and people engaged in software development projects are perhaps the most essential aspects of the software supply chain.

Several attack vectors emerge from this increasingly linked, massive, and sophisticated system of people, technology, and process interfaces. Any of these touchpoints can be used by malicious actors to get access to the software supply chain. Even software made out of third-party tools and open-source libraries may be exploited to insert malicious code, exploit code vulnerabilities, disguise package dependencies, hijack program updates, and circumvent code signing protocols.

Several legislation and industry standards now expressly address supply chain security and give organizations with particular security requirements. Several standards require enterprises to utilize software bills of materials ...
... (SBOMs), which explain what is included in a clinical supply chain management system.

Compliance regulations, in general, are increasingly requiring firms to include supply chain security in their clinical trial supply chain management solution. This necessitates thorough risk management for third-party vendors, logistics, and transportation. The purpose is to detect, assess, and manage supply chain risks in order to comply with regulations and prevent supply chain threats.

These compliance requirements for an eclinical supply chain management platform were produced by a global community of specialist experts through a consensus-based review process. This technique combines on-the-ground knowledge with threat databases to generate technology-specific instructions to aid in the protection of your environment. Participants in the consensus provide insights from a wide range of fields, including software development, consulting, auditing and compliance, operations, security research, government, and law.

1. SLSA

Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) is an eclinical supply chain management platform implementation requirement that includes standards and control lists to help prevent tampering, assure integrity, and secure a software project's infrastructure and packages. The objective is to guarantee that every link in the supply chain is as resilient and secure as possible.
SLSA provides four levels of implementation for organizations:

Level 1: Simple to implement, gives supply chain insight, and can build supply chain provenance.

Level 2: Increases software tamper resistance and minimum build integrity guarantees.

Level 3: Protects infrastructure from threats and increases dependability for complicated system integration.

Level 4: The highest level of assurance for build integrity and dependency management.
The SLSA standard

2. SSDF

The Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF) 1.1 has been issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It outlines a number of recommended practices that companies and third-party providers should implement in order to have more control over the software development lifecycle.

SSDF primarily focuses on how a business may protect the software supply chain by applying security across the DevOps process, independent of platform, technology, operating system, or programming language.

It offers four main strategies:
Prepare your company for supply chain threats.
Keep all software components safe from tampering and illegal access.
Address security flaws in software releases to provide suitably safe software.
Check for and fix vulnerabilities.
Safe Software Development Framework

3. SCITT

The Supply Chain Integrity, Transparency, and Trust (SCITT) project is a proposed set of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) industry standards for regulating compliance of goods and services in a supply chain from beginning to finish.

With ongoing verification of products and services, SCITT assures the validity of entities, evidence, policies, and artifacts, as well as that the work of various entities in the supply chain is authoritative, indisputable, tamper-proof, and auditable. It gives precise information on dependencies in both structured and unstructured formats. SCITT employs the notion of a claim, which is a well-formed assertion supported by evidence from a verifiable source.

The Octalsoft Edge

Octalsoft's products are built on best practices standards grouped into five areas that cover every element of the software supply chain.

Source Code: The source code is the source of information for the whole process because it is the initial stage in the software supply chain. Undetected vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and open supply chain data can all lead to situations where you need to defend your own source code.

Build Pipelines: A collection of instructions for performing activities on raw source code in order to construct a finished product. You should examine your development pipeline and put security suggestions for your build components into action. This comprises the operating environment, execution, and management, among other things.

Dependencies: They are present by default at nearly every level of the software supply chain development process. Unresolved dependencies might render them insecure since they are frequently built by third-party developers. The Log4j exploit is a prime illustration of how dependencies may jeopardize even the most widely used applications.

Artifacts: Creating the pipeline's artifacts is another weak point in supply chains. To prevent tainted iterations from entering the supply chain environment, they must be safeguarded from the time they are formed.
Deployment: To safeguard clients who are already using the program in production, application deployment, configurations, and data supplied to the end user must be secured.

Conclusion

Constantly changing industry rules and standards have made it critical for businesses to have a clear compliance management plan, according to the type and design of regulatory changes, as well as the amount of risk involved.

Businesses are frequently better equipped to adapt to changing regulatory requirements by using an automated solution that is efficient and user-friendly for concerned stakeholders and suppliers all over the world.

A system of this type should also give real-time insight into compliance across all supply chain layers and assist stakeholders in understanding the effect of risks on strategic and organizational goals. Interested in Finding out how Octalsoft can help ensure the success of your next clinical trial? Book a demo with us NOW!