Hardware Supply Chain Threats Can Undermine Endpoint Infrastructure

**Executive summary:** This commentary highlights the growing risk of hardware and firmware supply-chain threats that can provide stealthy, persistent access beneath the OS, summarizes regulatory momentum (e.g., US EO 14028, NIS2, Cyber Resilience Act), cites UEFI malware examples, and recommends four key actions—secure firmware configuration with cryptographic controls, use vendor factory services, adopt platform certificate verification, and monitor firmware/hardware compliance across device lifecycles—to improve endpoint resilience.