As the whole world is eagerly waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines, there are several hindrances at the development stage as the vaccine trials are resulting in various ailments as side-effects. Although the scientists are striving hard to counter these issues, there come yet another challenge – ‘cyber-attacks at data centers’. Presently, these cyber-attacks are as perilous as COVID-19 itself in the business arena.

Just a few days back, drug major Dr Reddy’s Laboratory received approval from DCGI to proceed with phase two and three trails for a reworked protocol that is in search of some additional information. But, the lab has been prone to cyber-attack post the incident the unit has been temporarily shut down which has halted the production.

Talking about the incident, Mukesh Rathi, CIO, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory says, "In the wake of a detected cyber-attack, we have isolated all data center services to take required preventive actions. 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.” (Source: Money Control)

Dr. Reddy is one of the renowned Indian pharmaceutical companies with its sales accounting for Rs. 17,460 crore in FY20 out of which 80 percent comes from exports. The company is unaware of when its operation would resume and get back to normal. This is one of the major cyber-attacks that occurred on an Indian company, lately. Alongside, this incident has also had a drastic impact on the market, as the company’s shares dropped by 2.81 percent and were trading at Rs.4905 and the benchmark Sensex dropped 0.30 percent to 40,589.26 points.

Increasing Cyberattack on Healthcare Centres
According to the Cybersecurity Ventures report, the ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations are approximated to quadruple between 2017 and 2020 and are further expected to grow five times by 2021. Also, the report predicts that the healthcare cybersecurity market is expected to expand by 15 percent year-over-year for the next five years. Thus, the industry is estimated to spend nearly $125 billion on cybersecurity from 2020 to 2025.

“Healthcare organizations experience very particular security challenges and it’s not because the cyberattacks are unique, but because of what’s at stake,” says Robert Herjavec, Founder and CEO of Herjavec Group, a leading global cybersecurity firm and Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP). (Source: Cybersecurity Ventures)

Data Breaches Impact on Vaccine Research
The increasing COVID-19 cases as also elevated the cyberattacks, as the hacked are attacking the medical devices to secure the patient’s details. The healthcare centers are mostly using IoT devices to facilitate remote care and this makes the data breach easier at the medical institutes.

However, the Indian government is expecting the COVID-19 vaccine to reach the market by the end of December or maximum by mid of January 2021. The Serum Institute of India has reached clinical trials in India and is currently conducting third phase trials in collaboration with the UK’s AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. While other vaccines are also in the development stage by Bharat Biotech International and Zydus Cadila is also expecting its successful completion by early 2021.

“It is difficult to say when the vaccines will be available. It depends on how the trials go and when the vaccines get regulatory approval. But the earliest it is expected in late December or January," said an official. (Source: Livemint)

Currently, almost all the pharmaceutical companies are working in full swing to launch the COVID-19 vaccines at the earliest. But, they are failing at varied trials. Without giving up they are progressing on the vaccine research. Yet, these cyberbullies are coming in as major trouble makers for these pharmaceutical companies, as they not only abruptly put the research work on halt but, also change the company in billions to recover their data loss.

Thus, the healthcare sectors could implement certain measures to curb data breaches. Firstly, the companies should analyze the possible risk factors, listing out vulnerabilities, and plan out suitable best practices. The organization must take the responsibility to make it a routine to implement the suggested security measures on regular basis without fail. Finally, companies should improve their capability to detect the potential of cyber-attacks and dump it. By following these measures the healthcare organization could cut down the cyber-attacks.