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Challenges in cybersecurity for pharmaceutical industry

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Pharmaceutical industry has developed pretty fast and the pandemic time only helped with that. All pharmaceutical companies are in front of the most innovative businesses. They publish new research and develop new medicines on a regular basis. They invest in modern technology, what usually improve the work, but also bring new threats when it comes to data and information security. How does it really work in pharmaceutical industry? Why are they even attacked by cybercriminals? What could be the result of a successful attack? Or data theft? Take a look at our article.  

 

Pharmaceutical industry is not resistant to cyber attacks 
 

Last few years, over 200 thousand of data exposure and violation took place in pharmaceutical companies – Constella Intelligence report shows. 

 

In 2017 a hacker team called NonPetya attacked IT systems of Merck company. About 30 thousand of their computers stopped working. One of the employees said that company didn’t know how to handle the situation in first two weeks. There was a serious breach in production, research and sales departments of Merc in the global scale. All losses are counted in milliards of dollars. 
 

In 2020 companies who worked on COVID-19 vaccines were aimed by Russian and North Korean hackers. Companies cooperating with the US, India, Canada, South Korea and  France governments were attacked just to make a chaos and disrupt social life. 

 

In 2022 cybercriminals stole and published important data from a Swiss company Novartis. They say they took it from laboratory of production department. Luckily, there were no sensitive data. After that, Novartis has implemented better cybersecurity solutions.  
 

Why hackers eagerly attack drug manufacturers? 

 
As the research conducted by Blueliy (together with Dagma) shows, pharmaceutical industry is one of the most popular aim of any cyberattacks. Usually the incidents are about taking control over intelectual property or steling some personal data of patients who take part in medical tests. 
 

Deloitte report “2020 Global life scences outlook. Creating new value. Building blocks for the future” shows that pharmaceutical sector is under a great pressure in terms of prize and efficiency incease. It comes as no surprise that medicine producers are engaged into research and development and use modern technology to do this in a best way. And this is what gives cybercriminals more and more opportunities to attack on every product stage: starting from project, development, production, up to sales and distribution. 

 
Pharmaceutical industry is very vulnerable for an industrial espionage. The process of inventing a new medicine lasts even years. The stolen details can be easily sold to a competitive company. Hackers could also force a ransom on a company it was stolen from, which they will pay in order to prevent the leak and it’s consequences.  

 

Cybercriminals often steal medical receipts and researches at the laboratory stage, in order to earn on it. But money is not always an issue. Some hacker groups are led by political motives, so they aim industries which cooperate with governments, just to disturb its continuity. Sometimes it is just all about creating a chaos, no political context at all. As in this example: a criminal breaks into IT system of an pharmaceutical company and changes the receipt of the medicine. It can cause even a deadly threat! 

 

Cybersecurity of any pharmaceutical company is a complex matter 

 

All pharmaceutical companies face a number of challenges when it comes to being safe online. Among the others, they really need to protect own reputation. In this industry, it’s very important. Pharmaceutical sector works on many medications that rescue human lives. Any leak or break down, in example with ransomware attack, may result it breach of trust on both sides – from patients and other medical companies. 

 

Apart from that, it’s also about protecting one’s intellectual property. It contains patent protection of medicines, researches or production line. The process of work on one medicine or vaccine is very long and complicated. It costs millions of dollars to launch one medicine on the market. That is why any hacker attack or data leak is a serious violation of company’s continuity and stability. It can also lead straight to bankruptcy.  

 

Not many industries are so strictly controlled as the pharmaceutical one. Vaccine producers must comply with very strict requirements, ordinances and legal regulations. It’s worth to mention the regulations on newest NIS 2 directive. It contains guidelines according to every stage: starting with project, production, through storage and logistics and transportation. To meet all the rules, the whole strategy need to be prepared and it should contain any possible cyber threats.  

 
Pharmaceutical industry should also be ready for any type of attacks that aim critical infrastructure. Like an attack on power stations and long-lasting lack of power, that results in production break. Apart from production also logistics is affected. There is a supply chain disruption, including storage, sales and distribution areas. If the industry doesn’t have any plan to limit disruption, hard times may come. 

 

How to check if a pharmaceutical company is properly secured online? Conduct a free cybersecurity audit that will show you any gaps and help to deal with them. Apart from that, step by to our blog, fanpage or LinkedIn profile, where we usually share some useful tips on cybersecurity. 

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