These 3 Unexpected Cyber Threats Spell Danger For The Biotech & Pharma Industries
If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic taught us (except for how really really crucial it is to wash our hands frequently, thank you Boris Johnson!) it’s the importance of a solid healthcare system.
Crowded hospitals straight out of pandemic horror shows don’t look like they’ll do much good for those who need medical care, but what’s the alternative? We’re all waiting for a cure and a vaccine. And Big Pharma, as much as some love to demonize it, is working on it.
But then there’s the hackers.
Cybersecurity is becoming a hugely important issue for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, as the pharma industry is getting unprecedented attention.
The latest Ecuron report highlights a series of important cyber risks that could affect the industry and indirectly cause a serious delay in the development of viable solutions for COVID-19.
1) The cyber threat is widespread
“The pandemic initially triggered a spike in cyber-attacks targeting the Healthcare sector, medical organizations across the globe and even the World Health Organization (WHO),” explain co-authors Christoph Eicken & Nicholas McBride. “But soon after, as drug makers and institutions started racing at an unprecedented speed after coronavirus drugs and vaccines, these cyber-attacks have reached the biotech sector and pharmaceutical industry.”
2) The smaller players are most at-risk
Pharma giants have taken some measures to mitigate their cyber risks, but small companies are more vulnerable: “While larger companies had some very costly wake-up calls and improved their cybersecurity efforts dramatically, we are worried about the start-up and small to medium sized organizations that would struggle financially to survive a serious data breach.”
3) The hackers are getting insanely good
On April 30, Charles River Laboratories announced that a “highly sophisticated, well-resourced intruder” had cracked its computer systems and stolen the data of about 1% of its customers. One of these was Nivien Therapeutics, a company that was working on a pancreatic cancer drug. The cyber attack exposed the identify of the therapeutic target and “potentially valuable activity-relationship data”.
These types of attacks have the potential to stop the development of pharma research and cause millions in losses for pharma companies.
So what are the solutions?
One of them could be surprisingly simple: proper staff training. Over 70% of Australian data breaches in 2019 were caused directly through human error. With the right training, the number of cyber attacks can be reduced significantly.
Other strategies are more complex, such as developing effective top-down cyber risk mitigation policies and identifying potential vulnerabilities.
One way or another, big pharma will have to figure out ways to respond to cyber threats; COVID-19 may have killed many businesses, but it’s only made hackers stronger.
