The potential impact on the UK healthcare and pharmaceutical industry from cyber-attacks is front-of-mind for a number of key reasons, including how critical these industries are to everyday life.
First, the Intellectual Property (IP) at the operational epicentre of these businesses – collectively worth hundreds of billions in R&D investment annually – makes the pharmaceutical industry an increasingly attractive target for cyber threat actors. Second, UK-headquartered healthcare and pharmaceutical companies work with myriad third-party organisations, with business functions spread across different geographies, territories, and jurisdictions.
This ecosystem of third parties exponentially widens the attack surface for healthcare and pharmaceutical firms, making them potentially more vulnerable to threat actors who are looking to access and exploit valuable, classified patient information and clinical data found across the sector.
Cyber budgets are rising, but so is the frequency of cyber-attacks
The most significant challenge of all when it comes to cyber risks, may be the ever-growing size and complexity of the industry’s supply chain ecosystems, the…
