Indias life sciences industry confronts extensive cybersecurity and data security breaches

Bengaluru, May 11, 2022:

Indian healthcare and life sciences companies are grappling with largest volumes of cybersecurity and data security breaches among all industry sectors. In 2021, specifically, the pharmaceutical sector reported the third-highest average cost of a data breach after healthcare and financial services.

Apart from the monetary aspect, cybersecurity breaches and data loss in the pharmaceutical industry can interrupt medical research and clinical trials, which can prove even more expensive for pharma companies.

The key attraction for hackers to this sector is the critical information on research, technology patents, and patient information. Unauthorized access to sensitive information has threatening consequences, including loss of public trust, stolen intellectual property, downtime, and significant revenue losses, said Filip Cotfas, channel manager, CoSoSys.

The emergence of digital technology during the COVID pandemic amplified the risk of cyber-attacks, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector with access to vast volume of sensitive data, he added.

According to Cotfas, the top 3 data protection issues facing the pharma industry are employee negligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and Third-party vendors.

Noting that employees are the primary drivers of data breaches across the globe, he said this is where educational training and awareness of common attack methods are essential for staying meticulous against hackers.

Common types of cybercrimes that influence human behavior to gain sensitive information include enticing or luring gullible employees, pretexting, and quid pro quo. By stealing medical identities, hackers and cyber-criminals can open new lines of credit and access insurance details, therefore making unauthentic medical claims, said Cotfas.

More data is available digitally today than ever before. IoT helps streamline access to sensitive documents, patient information and also use large quantities of data to monitor industry trends like electronic medical records, clinical trials, fitness apps, and wearable devices. Despite growing concerns regarding data discretion, the acceptance of smart devices and wearables continue to grow. Theft of data occurs mainly digitally and can come both from an insider or an outsider and the collaboration and synergy of their work, he stated.

Further, many pharma companies trust services offered by third-party vendors to implement day-to-day operations and increase competencies. In case any third-party vendor within an organisation’s ecosystem were to experience a data breach, it impacts the operations leading to reputational, financial, and in some cases, legal damage too. This is why it is important to have complete visibility across a company’s network that allows to continuously monitor third-party vendors’ cybersecurity, stated Cotfas.

Therefore, companies need to proactively start mapping what data they hold and the methods by which it is processed. Hence data protection is vital to maintain the trust and confidence of customers involved in the process. Right technological solutions such as Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions aim at tackling the threats, thus helping pharmaceutical organizations avoid data leaks and data theft originating from employee carelessness or malicious insiders, said Cotfas. Phrmabiz