INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
HEALTHCARE AND PHARMA NEED TO BUILD IMMUNITY AGAINST CYBER THREATS
The healthcare and pharmaceutical industry has a complex and challenging cyber threat landscape. The current burden of the pandemic is further causing a priority shift away from security and towards usability and along with that comes multifarious danger. From sale of healthcare data in underground forums to ransomware, the industry needs to urgently improve their risk profile and security posture. Paul Prudhomme, Head of Threat Intelligence Advisory, IntSights, a Rapid7
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P H A RM A F O C U S A S I A
ISSUE 45 - 2021
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n August 2021, ransomware operators targeted the health department of the Italian region of Lazio and disabled its COVID-19 vaccination booking system, disrupting the scheduling of new vaccination appointments for days. Since it contains the city of Rome and is one of Italy’s most densely populated areas, Lazio was an attractive target because of the strong desire among its people to get vaccinated and gain its Green Pass vaccine passport. Hackers likely believed that this would pressure the authorities to pay up the ransom to unlock the systems they had disabled through a cyberattack.
