In this environment of advanced threats along every point of the value chain, I'd like to talk about what it means for you, our customers and partners, to have supply chain security throughout the product lifecycle.

I've just finished a short video on this topic. I'd love to hear your feedback, insights and suggestions on securing the product supply chain.

At Cisco, we are focused on three primary threats to the supply chain that can affect our solutions: manipulation, espionage and disruption. These threats manifest in three fundamental exposures:

• Misappropriation of intellectual property, which leads to unfair business competition
• Counterfeit of either raw materials or finished goods that are not authentic
• Taint, which is any alteration that allows unauthorized control or content visibility

To address these exposures, we're thinking in a three-dimensional way by using security technology, physical security techniques and rule-based logical security to simultaneously attack those threats across the end-to-end value chain.

How are we doing that? The foundation of our answer is this: through a single, unified architecture to address every node in the value chain:

We drive this comprehensive view through our security master specification. It's a unified platform that can be customized based on the nature of service or product that a member of the supply chain delivers.

We'll be talking more about this comprehensive view, so please stay tuned. We look forward to articulating our commitment to comprehensive value chain security over time, because we want to become your number one trusted IT partner. Thank you for allowing us to earn your trust.

For a related post on how the supply chain requires a collaborative effort, click here.

For more information on Cisco Supply Chain Security, visit the Cisco Trust and Transparency Center.