"As a global pharmaceutical company, our systems are subject to frequent attacks."
The quote above caught my eye and comes from the risk factor section of Pfizer’s US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. In principle, it shouldn’t come as a surprise; any high-profile organisation is the target of fame- or fortune-seeking hackers.
So is the pharmaceutical sector especially vulnerable?
Last month, Anthem Inc, the second-largest health insurer in the US, fell victim to probably the largest data breach yet disclosed by a health-care company. Hackers broke into a database containing personal information of about 80 million customers and employees.
Stolen personal data has a recognised currency – hence the emphasis on patient data security embedded within Good Clinical Practice. GCP stresses that electronic trial data should be both accurate and secure from unauthorised access. But, is absolute security even possible in today’s climate of sophisticated cybercrime?
Pfizer has taken out cyber-liability insurance. Despite this, it acknowledges that there is still a possibility that the loss of data or documents could cause it "financial, legal, business and reputational harm." And who knows if any insurance provision would actually be enough to cover potential losses.
Trial data is, of course not the only valuable commodity held by pharma companies. Intellectual property relating to patented drugs is an obvious target. However, the very nature of big pharma can attract the attention of hacktivists seeking to disrupt rather than necessarily defraud.
Pfizer is not alone in its concerns, although Merck’s comment that it "has been the target of events of this nature and expects them to continue" sounds a little less fatalistic.
Cybercrime and cyberspying cost the global economy about £200 billion. For small businesses, the worst breaches cost between £65,000 and £115,000 on average; for large firms, the damage can be between £600,000 and £1.15 million.
It’s certainly a potentially very expensive business.
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