MSPs are your supply chain. We should be verifying them like one
Guest blog by Mit Patel, Founder at Assurix #techUKSupplyChainSecurityWeek
Mit Patel
Founder, Assurix
Paper certificates do not secure supply chains; live evidence does. That is the direction that UK policy is moving towards with the upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.
The current model is stranger than it seems. An IT provider holds your domain admin credentials, sits inside your identity stack, runs your backup systems, and even controls your EDR console. In practical terms, they are your security team. And the way that buyers check that any of this is run safely is an audit that takes place once a year.
Trust is the default. It shouldn't be.
This is how almost every UK buyer verifies their supplier today. A self-attestation form. A logo on a slide. A point-in-time certification based on an annual audit.
Two recent cases sit on the same fault line. In March 2025, the Information Commissioner's Office fined Advanced Computer Software £3.07m for an attack that had entered through a customer account without multi-factor authentication. In December 2025, DXS International, a clinical software supplier whose products sit inside thousands of GP workflows, disclosed a security incident on its office systems. Different companies, different attacks, but the same underlying truth: paperwork did not catch the gap.
Supply chain risk does not behave like a certificate; controls drift between audits, technicians come and go, customer environments are onboarded with shortcuts, tooling gets misconfigured. Procurement, insurers, and regulators are left taking trust as evidence.
What good actually looks like
Continuous, evidence-based verification has three properties. It runs all the time, not once a year. Evidence is read directly from the supplier's environment, not gathered into a questionnaire. When a control fails, the supplier is told to fix it and if they don't, the certification is suspended, in public.
A trustmark, certification, or status that does not move when the underlying posture moves shows that a supplier once met the standard, not that they do today. If assurance is going to be load-bearing, public suspension when standards drop must be part of it. The buyer needs to be able to see, today, whether their supplier still meets the bar, not what an auditor wrote down last quarter.
Where this is already working
Assurix is a continuous, live evidence trustmark for UK IT suppliers. It sits on a defined set of operational and security controls, aligned with the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework. Evidence is read continuously from the supplier's environment, not from a self-completed form. If something falls out of tolerance, there is a thirty-day window to fix it. Past that, it is publicly suspended. Buyers, insurers, and regulators can check the status of an IT provider whenever they need to, not the moment its auditor was last in the building.
The same logic applies further up the supply chain. Defence sub-contractors, clinical software vendors, payroll providers, shared services platforms: all of them hold privileged access into customer environments, and all of them are verified today by point in time certifications. The IT provider market is where the model is being proven first, because the risk is most concentrated and the buyer is least equipped to interrogate it. But wherever a third party holds the keys, we must be able to verify whether they are keeping their systems secure today.
The model exists. The work now is to take it from the leading edge of the UK IT provider market into the rest of the supply chain.
Sources:
Cyber Resilience Programme activities
techUK brings together key players across the cyber security sector to promote leading-edge UK capabilities, build networks and grow the sector. techUK members have the opportunity to network, share ideas and collaborate, enabling the industry as a whole to address common challenges and opportunities together. Visit the programme page here.
Upcoming events
Latest news and insights
Learn more and get involved
Cyber Resilience updates
Sign-up to get the latest updates and opportunities from our Cyber Resilience programme.
Meet the team
Jill Broom
Head of Cyber Resilience, techUK
Jill leads the techUK Cyber Resilience programme, having originally joined techUK in October 2020 as a Programme Manager for the Cyber and Central Government programmes. She is responsible for managing techUK's work across the cyber security ecosystem, bringing industry together with key stakeholders across the public and private sectors. Jill also provides the industry secretariat for the Cyber Growth Partnership, the industry and government conduit for supporting the growth of the sector. A key focus of her work is to strengthen the public–private partnership across cyber to support further development of UK cyber security and resilience policy.
Before joining techUK, Jill worked as a Senior Caseworker for an MP, advocating for local communities, businesses and individuals, so she is particularly committed to techUK’s vision of harnessing the power of technology to improve people’s lives. Jill is also an experienced editorial professional and has delivered copyediting and writing services for public-body and SME clients as well as publishers.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Website:
- www.techuk.org/
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-broom-19aa824
Read lessmore
Annie Collings
Senior Programme Manager, Cyber Resilience, techUK
Annie is the Programme Manager for Cyber Resilience at techUK. She first joined as the Programme Manager for Cyber Security and Central Government in September 2023.
In her role, Annie supports the Cyber Security SME Forum, engaging regularly with key government and industry stakeholders to advance the growth and development of SMEs in the cyber sector. Annie also coordinates events, engages with policy makers and represents techUK at a number of cyber security events.
Before joining techUK, Annie was an Account Manager at a specialist healthcare agency, where she provided public affairs support to a wide range of medical technology clients. She also gained experience as an intern in both an MP’s constituency office and with the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed. Annie holds a degree in International Relations from Nottingham Trent University.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Twitter:
- anniecollings24
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-collings-270150158/
Read lessmore
Olivia Staples
Junior Programme Manager - Cyber Resilience, techUK
Olivia Staples joined techUK in May 2025 as a Junior Programme Manager in the Cyber Resilience team.
She supports the programs mission to promote cyber resilience by engaging key commercial and government stakeholders to shape the cyber resilience policy towards increased security and industry growth. Olivia assists in member engagement, event facilitation and communications support.
Before joining techUK, Olivia gained experience in research, advocacy, and strategic communications across several international organisations. At the Munich Security Conference, she supported stakeholder engagement and contributed to strategic communications. She also worked closely with local and national government stakeholders in Spain and Italy, where she was involved in policy monitoring and advocacy for both public and private sector clients.
Olivia holds an MSc in Political Science (Comparative Politics and Conflict Studies) from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from University College London (UCL).
Outside of tech, Olivia enjoys volunteering with local charities and learning Norwegian.
- Email:
- [email protected]
Read lessmore
Authors
Mit Patel
Founder, Assurix
