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Identified as primary targets of cyber criminals determined to steal IP and PHI data, the threat to the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare sector remains high. With data breach costs increasing from $7.13 million in 2020 to $9.23 million in 2021, it remains the highest cost of a breach industry for the 11th year in a row. Find out how Worldr can help protect IP, PHI and PII data while ensuring data is stored domestically to meet regulatory compliance and legal requirements.

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In December 2020, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) acknowledged that it had fallen victim to a cyber attack where documents concerning the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had been accessed by a threat actor.

Unidentified hackers accessed word documents, PDFs, email screenshots and PowerPoint presentations containing sensitive information directly linked to the vaccine through the EMA server, which is far from the only cyber-attack related to COVID-19 vaccines. This data was eventually leaked, although many documents were edited prior to the release. 

Pfizer and BioNTech released a joint statement outlining the nature of the breach: "Today, we were informed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that the agency has been subject to a cyber-attack and that some documents relating to the regulatory submission for Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, which has been stored on an EMA server, had been unlawfully accessed.”

The NotPetya attack impacted thousands of companies across the globe, destroyed data for more than 40,000 Merck computers and culminated in a 1.4 billion dollar lawsuit for Merck (settled in 2022).

Merck was hit by the malware, along with Maersk, FedEx, and Cadbury and spent over $300 million on repair and recovery after the attackers destroyed thousands of computers and applications. Hundreds of millions were spent by organizations affected by the NotPetya attack with the White House issuing a statement that it was the “most destructive and costliest [cyberattack] in history” and promised international consequences would be issued.

It also disrupted the production of the HPV vaccine so much so that Merck had to borrow the US Government’s complete emergency supply. Merck also lost possible sales of around $410m.

AstraZeneca targeted by North Korean hackers

In 2020, reports emerged that North Korean hackers had enabled a spear-phishing campaign to target AstraZeneca. Masquerading as job recruiters on LinkedIn and WhatsApp, the threat actors connected with AstraZeneca employees, including staff focussed on the Covid-19 vaccine, with fake offers of employment. The primary goal was to gain access to employee computers to launch their campaign.

North Korean actors also tried stealing vaccine data from Johnson & Johnson and Novovax, and three South Korean drugmakers - Celltrion, Genexine and Shin Poong Pharmaceuticals with similar schemes.

The cyberattack accusations were revealed after Microsoft pointed at North Korea and Russia for targeting several “prominent companies directly involved in researching vaccines and treatments for COVID-19.” A recent report by IBM and the Ponemon Institute assessed that the average cost of a breach is above $5m and will take an average of 257 days to be detected and contained.

The Winnti attacks, which targeted Bayer in 2018 and Roche in 2019, are thought to be linked to a state-sponsored hacking group from China.

The Winnti group has targeted multiple sectors across the globe and was mostly known for attacks against the online video games industry until evidence emerged that it had targeted pharma companies starting in 2015. Winnti uses stolen certificates to sign the malware, and once installed, the hackers gain remote access to the accessed computer.

Bayer found the Winnti infections at the beginning of 2018 but decided to isolate and monitor the malware, instead of removing it, with the goal of tracing its source.

After some time had passed, Bayer noted that there was no evidence of data theft and the goal of the breach seemed to favour industrial espionage. Roche, also a victim of Winnti, claimed that it hadn’t been seriously compromised by the attack.

Throughout the pandemic, cyberattacks skyrocketed, and the healthcare/pharma sector was no exception. The National Cyber Security Centre says it handled a record 777 incidents between August 2020 and September 2021.

A report by IBM recently detected a number of cyberattacks aimed at the vaccine cold chain, primarily within the distribution channels. The aim of the attack was unclear however, vulnerabilities could lead to sabotage or have an effect on IP.

In October 2020, drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (based in India) was forced to shut several production facilities after experiencing a cyber attack. It closed key plants in the UK, US, Brazil, India and Russia and experienced a dip in stock prices. 

"In the wake of a detected cyber-attack, we have isolated all data centre services to take required preventive actions," Mukesh Rathi, CIO, Dr Reddy's Laboratories

The breach came at the time when Dr Reddy’s was readying itself for final stage trials on Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. The attack contained clinical trial data which proved to be invaluable at the time of a global pandemic.

The Indiana-based health system said cybercriminals gained access to their network in an attempt to exfiltrate sensitive data prior to using ransomware to encrypt files. Eskenazi Health discovered the attack and immediately shut down their computer systems to prevent further unauthorized access. The healthcare provider made the decision to divert ambulances and cancel certain appointments as a safety measure while its electronic medical record system was offline.In the end it did not make a ransom payment, and the criminals released some of the stolen data on the dark web.The result? 1.5 million records affected by the breach and a lawsuit seeking class-action status launched by affected parties.

A US provider of children’s health insurance traced a data breach affecting 3.5 million individuals to a cyberattack on its web hosting platform. An analysis found that "significant vulnerabilities" had likely been present on the children's health insurance program website since 2013 which lead to the exposure of personal information including social security details, names, dates of birth and financial information.

Major data breaches in Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals to learn from

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