Need of Cyber Security in Pharmaceutical Industry

Today’s pharmaceutical industry is more effective than ever due to the blend of technology in it. Tech innovations in the development of medicines have been leading to healthcare solutions for diseases we could not even imagine, including diagnostics, preventive measures, and treatments.

Is There Really a Requirement for Cyber Security?

Yes, the top need for any firm today is to pay close attention to security posture evaluations and data security policies. And this is because the risk and vulnerabilities of data security is occurring constantly. So, cyber security becomes the topmost need. Healthcare industry is among the industries that are most vulnerable to cyber attacks - compromising confidential data and threatening routine work. It is impossible to get educated on cyber security for this industry staff due to their busy and long days in doing research work. Moreover, everyday new uncovered threats make it more difficult to know where it would be best to invest the budget of a pharma company.

Reasons that Make Pharma Sector Prone to Cyber Attacks

Often- outdated systems is the topmost reason that increases the attack risk. Hackers can sell incredible data and make a lot of money, so it is the most important thing to save research data with high security.

• Pandemic has made remote work more common. Sharing the data at different platforms opens up golden opportunities for hackers.
• Healthcare area remains the most demanding area and of course the busiest area. Tight deadlines and long working hours do not allow them to use new technologies because they do not have time to get handy working on new things.
• Medical devices are easy to hack – these are made for many purposes like dispensing medicines or monitoring heart rates. These are not prepared with security alerts. Though, hackers are aware that devices do not store any research data, due to lack of security, medical devices become the entry point for hackers.
• Not one, but there is use of hundreds of devices in the pharmaceutical industry – all devices are connected to a single network making cyber attacks more approachable.

Ways to Protect Your Organisation

• If possible, you need to make a team entirely dedicated full time to look at the information security program, and prioritise the role of each member so that they have authority and freedom to be operative efficiently. You need to remain updated on your company’s strategic cyber risk profile and ensure that adequate measures are being taken to remove the upcoming cyber risk.
• Basic security systems to help you are data loss prevention, anti-virus, email gateway, intrusion detection, duplicate encryption, web gateway, etc
• Advanced security control systems such as business continuity, anti-theft devices, digital forensics, network fragmentation, login testing, multi-factor authentication, risk scans, and information sharing scans could also help the pharmaceutical industry to enhance its security.