BioTech Startups: How Much Cyber Attacks Actually Cost
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BioTech Startups: How Much Cyber Attacks Actually Cost
Munds Park RV Resor
December 26, 2024
by Katryna Calejo
In the fast-paced world of biotechnology where groundbreaking research and pioneering innovations have the potential to save lives, cybercriminals lurk in the background poking for any vulnerability they can exploit. Our data is valuable, especially high-value intellectual property and sensitive patient data. This is what makes healthcare the most coveted industry for cybercriminals.
While only the really big breaches make headlines, cybercriminals aren’t just targeting well-established hospitals and health systems. They are targeting startups like yours, too. As cyber threats evolve and become more sophisticated, if you don’t protect your biotech startup, you could jeopardize more than just your IP (intellectual property) and patient data. You could jeopardize your whole business.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the real costs of cyber attacks for biotech startups and how you can prepare your business for 2025’s biggest threats.
Understanding the most common cyberthreats
You operate in a high-stakes industry where sensitive information and data are prime targets for cybercriminals. If you want to protect your business from bad actors, understanding the most common threats is essential
From remote workers to one innocent-looking email, there are vulnerabilities everywhere. Here are some of the most common cyberthreats for biotech companies:
Ransomware: This is exactly what it sounds like. Except instead of holding physical people hostage for money, cybercriminals lock users out of their systems or encrypt important data and demand payment for its release.
Malware: Malicious software like worms, viruses, and more that are designed to steal sensitive data or throw a wrench in your operations. Malware can target IP and easily compromise research if not nipped in the bud before it can do real damage.
Phishing: There’s a reason why people say never click a link from an email address you don’t recognize or trust. This is why cybercriminals will usually pose as trusted colleagues or businesses to trick your team into clicking a malicious link. The purpose is to steal login credentials or financial details.
Denial of Service (DoS): This cyber attack is usually more common in retail or B2C, but it doesn’t mean that healthcare and biotech companies are immune. A DoS attack is one that uses bots to overwhelm a network or server with a ton of traffic, more than the system can handle. This makes systems inaccessible.
In the age of AI, the cyberthreat landscape is changing faster than ever which is exactly why, as a biotech startup, you need to protect yourself before it costs you..
That brings us to our next point.
Financial: The monetary cost of cyber attacks
What could your business do with $10M?
Probably get that lifesaving treatment or device to market faster. Now imagine having that money and losing it because your bases weren’t properly covered. That’s the average cost of a healthcare data breach. That’s how detrimental the financial impact can be if you don’t cover your bases.
While you might be thinking that this number only applies to large health systems and payers, it still costs biotech startups a significant sum. For example, Enzo Biochem had to pay the state of New York $4.5M over a 2023 cyber attack. Enzo’s poor data protection practices exposed them to vulnerabilities that were then exploited with a ransomware attack.
In both of these scenarios, we’re talking about the financial impact that a biotech or healthcare company takes in the immediate settlement aftermath. There are other financial costs that don’t necessarily make headlines like the long-term financial impact of a data breach.
Operational: An uncertain future
For biotech startups, the aftermath of a cyber attack reaches far beyond the immediate impact. Once the headlines move on and the public dust settles, you’re left with an operational nightmare that seemingly never ends; the domino effect is far-reaching and you’ll have to pivot quickly to control the fall out.
You are likely working on groundbreaking innovations that depend on continuity and precision. A cyber attack can easily compromise data integrity which means that your research and trials aren’t reliable anymore. At least not anything conducted during the breach.
The other operational nightmare happens when regulatory agencies come knocking. A breach could trigger audits, requiring you to shift your focus, time, and resources away from innovation and funnel it into damage control. Because they demand extensive reporting, your day-to-day operations could stall or completely halt all together.
For biotech startups, where innovating quickly and efficiently can be the key to staying ahead of the competition, the operational impact can be especially damaging in the long run.
Reputational: The long-term consequence
In healthcare, trust is everything. Whether it’s a health system that is looking to implement your groundbreaking implantable therapeutic tissue, or a pharmaceutical company that needs your clinical trial management platform, they won’t invest in a company they can’t trust. No matter how innovative your solution is.
A data breach does a lot more than compromise your PII or IP, it can annihilate your reputation. For startups, this is one of the most damaging of all because it cuts you down at the knees before you have a chance to run.
That health system or pharma company will trust your competitors over you, because if your data was compromised so easily, who’s to say that there aren’t holes in your fabric beyond just digital vulnerabilities?
Now that we’ve touched on the far-reaching impacts of a data breach, let’s take a look at how you can protect your startup.
How to protect your biotech startup from a data breach
By now, you likely understand why a robust cybersecurity plan is so important, especially in biotech. Because your industry is both high-risk and high-value, protecting your company’s systems and data from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats is a must.
We’ll go deeper into this topic in a future blog, but here are the most important solutions that you should consider:
Antivirus Software: Protects against malware and ransomware. When looking at antivirus platforms, make sure you find one that adapts to the latest malicious threats.
Endpoint Detection and Response: Perfect for avoiding vulnerabilities caused by compromised third-party apps or devices. EDR is a cloud-native solution that detects and responds to threats in real time.
Ringfencing Technology: If EDR is the army, ringfencing is the moat. It restricts unauthorized access to your most sensitive files and applications. It also restricts compromised applications so the compromised system can’t spread to your other critical platforms, containing the threat.
Managed Firewalls:
Log Monitoring and Management: While all of the solutions on this list are proactive, log monitoring is the most proactive of all because it reinforces your defenses before an attacker tries to breach you. Log monitoring adds an extra layer of security by helping to identify potential threats, compliance violations, and vulnerabilities. This ensures that any holes are patched before they become problematic.
Be safe, not sorry
In the biotech world, innovation moves fast, but so do cybercriminals with AI at their fingertips. This is where Network Thinking Solutions comes in. We’re a managed service provider that specializes in the complex biotech landscape, we combine cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions with an in-depth understanding of your industry’s unique challenges.
From protecting your IP and patient data to ensuring regulatory compliance, we create a proactive defense strategy that’s uniquely tailored to the needs of your startup.
Don’t let cyberthreats threaten your innovative and life-saving work. Let’s secure your future together.
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