Pharma companies have an imperative role in protecting sensitive data, such as patented medication records, technological data, and pharmaceutical developments. This is the reason why they are in the bombsight of attackers. However, latest research suggests that 10% of pharmaceutical manufacturers are at high risk of suffering a ransomware attack.
Recent findings
Black Kite conducted a survey on 200 of the largest pharma companies across the globe, along with 166 of their third-party vendors, to delineate the threats by the industry.
- More than 12% of pharmaceutical vendors are susceptible to suffering a ransomware attack.
- The average cost of cyberattacks on pharma companies per year is $31.1 million.
- While pharmaceutical companies of all sizes face cyber risks, medium-sized ones are the most vulnerable.
- Nearly half of the surveyed companies have more than 1,000 employee credentials leaked on the dark web.
- The most significant financial risk to pharma manufacturers is posed by data management vendors, accounting to $6.2 million.
Why does it matter?
The numbers suggest that best cybersecurity practices are not being followed in the pharmaceutical industry. Although most pharma companies are well aware of the detrimental effects of a cyberattack, the industry lacks a proactive deployment of cybersecurity.
Latest attacks on pharma industry
As research organizations across the globe started research and development on COVID-19 vaccines, most of the attacks were targeted at those institutions, as well as the vaccine supply chain.
- Scammers are leveraging Telegram to sell fake vaccination records to the anti-vaxxers and unvaccinated communities.
- Earlier this month, a fraud website masquerading as a legitimate biotech company was seized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. It aimed to steal data.
The bottom line
While the daily onslaught of ransomware attacks against different sectors can seem to be a daunting challenge, the pharmaceutical industry can adopt proactive cybersecurity strategies to reduce the threat surface. On careful observation, there are various blind spots in the industry that need to be fixed.
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