The onset and later spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has become an incentive for many businesses and industries to adopt digitization at a pace like never before. With wave after wave, consequent lockdowns, physical distancing, and social distancing, organizations have modified their operational functionality to move toward cloud-based systems. The pharma sector in India has been no exception.
The pharma industry was the most under pressure to combat the pandemic and develop a vaccine that would stand up to the virus. Entrusted with essentially ending the pandemic, they became a target for cybercriminals and hackers who wanted to steal the ideas and discoveries made by others who were their competition.
The threat had already been intensifying in the last decade or so, and the pandemic proved to be a huge iteration of the looming challenge. This created a storm within the pharma industry, giving hackers the means and motivation to realize their antics. It has also highlighted the importance of cybersecurity, especially when public health is at stake.
One of the most popular cyberattacks in India that grabbed headlines was the data breach at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories.
Technology giant IBM detected a number of cyberattacks against the chain of companies manufacturing the vaccine, specifically companies and government agencies involved in distribution. However, it is not clear whether the perpetrators were looking to steal the IP or sabotage the rollout.
In October 2020, Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories was forced to shut down several production facilities in the wake of a cyberattack. In addition to isolating all data centres, it closed plants in the US, UK, India, Brazil and Russia.
The incident occurred just as Dr. Reddy’s was gearing up for the final stage of trials on the Russian-origin Sputnik V vaccine. The servers that were targeted contained clinical trial data – an invaluable piece of intellectual property at this point in the pandemic and something that would have been a huge cost to the public health system if breached or compromised.
CIO of Dr. Reddy’s, Mr. Mukesh Rathi, said: “We are anticipating all services to be up within 24 hours, and we do not foresee any major impact on our operations due to this incident.” However, the threat was real and became a turning point in the pharma industry in India.
LEARNING GOING FORWARD
It is high time that all businesses and organizations understand the impending threat on account of laxity in cybersecurity and become aware of the newer ways in which cybercriminals are targeting software and systems. It will not help to keep an old-school approach but calls for an exhaustive overhaul in the way technology works within industries and organizations. More than anything, it calls for educating and creating awareness amongst all groups of people in our country.
About SNS
Secure Network Solutions (SNS) provides a quantifiable, risk-based approach to building a global structure of cybersecurity, based on internationally recognized frameworks and practices. We have been providing services and catering to clients across industries for the last 20 years. Write to us at [email protected].
