When Your Supply Chain Is Your Cyber Risk: Lessons from the Fulgar Fabric Supplier Breach
- Alan S
- Nov 17
- 3 min read
A recent ransomware attack on Fulgar S.p.A., a major yarn and synthetic fiber supplier, is a stark reminder to all businesses, especially small and mid-sized companies, that third-party risk is real, and it's escalating fast. Fulgar’s clients include fashion giants like H&M, Adidas, Wolford, and Calzedonia. More details about this breach were posted on Tech Radar and Cybernews.
What Happened at Fulgar
The RansomHouse group claims to have encrypted and exfiltrated internal files from Fulgar, including spreadsheets, invoices, communications, financials, and strategic documents.
Fulgar confirmed systems were shut down when the breach was detected—signaling significant operational disruption.
Because Fulgar operates globally (with sites in Italy, Sri Lanka, and Turkey), and works closely with its brand customers, any compromise of its data or systems could cascade into its clients’ operations.
Why This Matters for an SMB That Manufactures Overseas
If your business produces goods overseas or partners with foreign factories/suppliers, here’s what this breach should trigger in your risk-management playbook:
Shared Data Is Shared Risk. When you share sensitive product specifications, forecasts, financial details, or order history with suppliers, that data becomes part of the threat surface. A breach at the supplier doesn’t just hurt them. It can expose you.
Operational Disruption. A ransomware attack at a key factory can bring production to a halt. That means missed deliveries, delays to customers, and potential revenue loss. For SMBs, these disruptions hit especially hard, you might not have the buffer of large capital reserves to absorb major downtime.
Supply-Chain Reputation Risk. If one of your suppliers is compromised, it could damage your brand’s reputation, especially with downstream partners or end customers. Security failures in your supply chain can be a red flag for current and prospective partners.
Attack Surface Amplification. Even if your own cybersecurity posture is strong, threat actors are increasingly targeting the softer targets: third-party vendors, factories, and subcontractors who may not have the same security maturity. You need to treat vendor systems as part of your extended infrastructure, not just “someone else’s problem.”
Insider Knowledge as Phishing Fuel. The leaked documents could be used by threat actors to craft highly convincing phishing campaigns. Attackers armed with legitimate internal emails, invoice formats, or financial data can launch more effective social-engineering attacks against you, your suppliers, or your customers.
How SMBs Should Respond: Strengthening Vendor Risk Management
Based on what we know from Fulgar and other recent supply-chain breaches, here’s a framework for how SMBs, especially those with overseas manufacturing, can better manage vendor risk:
Vendor Cybersecurity Due Diligence. Don’t just onboard a supplier because they’re cost-effective. Evaluate their cybersecurity maturity. Ask for assessments or evidence of security controls, patching cadence, incident response plans, and data-segmentation practices.
Limit Access to Sensitive Data. Use the principle of least privilege: only share with suppliers the data they absolutely need to fulfill their role. Restrict what they can see, where they can store it, and how long they can keep it.
Include Security Clauses in Contracts. Make cyber-resilience a contractual requirement. Include obligations for incident reporting, data encryption, secure backups, and timely communication in the event of a breach.
Continuously Monitor Vendor Risk. Vendor risk isn’t “set it and forget it.” Establish ongoing monitoring: regular security check-ins, threat intelligence sharing, and possibly even third-party risk platforms that track your suppliers’ security posture.
Build Business Continuity Plans Around Vendor Outages. If a key supplier gets hit, how will you respond? Map out contingency plans: alternative suppliers, production fallback options, emergency communication plans, and buffer stocks if possible.
Train Your Team on Supply-Chain Phishing Threats. Leverage the insights from the Fulgar breach: attackers may use real invoice formats or internal company language. Train your staff (especially procurement, operations, and finance) to recognize phishing attempts that may be built on insider knowledge.
Review Insurance Coverage. Make sure your cyber insurance (or business-interruption insurance) addresses third-party vendor risk. Confirm that your policy covers costs related to supplier breaches, including data recovery, legal liability, and operational losses.
Final Cyber Risk Thoughts
The Fulgar ransomware attack isn’t just a headline about fashion, it’s a wake-up call for every business that relies on global supply chains. Vendor risk is business risk. For SMBs that export, manufacture overseas, or integrate deeply with third-party factories, ignoring supply-chain cybersecurity isn’t an option.
Your security strategy needs to extend beyond your own network, to every supplier, partner, and sub-contractor who has access to your data or helps bring your products to life. By hardening those relationships and embedding cyber-resilience into supplier management, you can protect your operations, reputation, and bottom line.
At Hudson Performance Solutions, we help SMBs assess third-party cyber risk, build vendor governance frameworks, and align security and business continuity strategies. If you want help building or improving your vendor risk program, let’s talk.