In 2020 we were hit by a pandemic, one that affected the world as a whole, and in response, the world started developing a vaccine. One company in particular that contributed to that effort is Pfizer. Although they were doing the world good, that did not mean that they were immune to Cyber attacks
In December of 2020, Pfizer were the victims of a cyber-attack that stole data about the vaccine, including powerpoint presentations, emails, word documents and PDFs. The attackers then proceeded to post Pfizer’s intellectual property on online forums.
On December 9th, Pfizer and BioNTech released a statement saying –
“Today, we were informed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that the agency has been subject to a cyberattack and that some documents relating to the regulatory submission for Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, which has been stored on an EMA server, had been unlawfully accessed”
The result of this attack was Pfizer intellectual property being released online, free for other companies to take as their own, however the larger problem was that the attackers managed to breach their security and breach the systems, which could have ended much worse than their IP being stolen.
Due to the nature of Pfizer’s work, they needed to work quickly in order to save lives. If the cyber-attack had been more malicious and shut down important systems, or locked valuable data, then it may have taken longer for the vaccine to be developed, ending in the loss of more lives.
When working in an environment where systems need to stay running in order for the safety of human lives, then it is important to have a security system in place that can detect and fight threats 24/7
Here at Fundamentals First, we have highly qualified security analysts who use state of the art tools to detect, analyse, respond to, and prevent cyber security incidents.
Having an SOC is critical in any size enterprise. Without having that team of qualified experts, many harmful attacks can go undetected.
With a Security Operations Centre there will be improved threat management which is available 24/7, and a large, qualified team who can detect and hunt down threats, preventing any malicious attempts at breaching the system. As well as this an SOC team can analyse the attacks and use the data they get from analysing to find better ways to protect the systems and networks, preventing future attacks.
Our UK based 24×7 Security Operations Centre can keep your organisation secure all year round.
Establishing an in-house Security Operations Centre that can keep up with the advancing sophistication of cyber attacks is out of reach for all but the largest companies. Even with the biggest of budgets, there is the continual need to hire and train security professionals, manage governance and procure software. Whereas outsourcing to our SOC gives you access to advanced security analytics and cutting-edge detection technology, letting you get on with running your business, safe in the knowledge that specialists are proactively guarding your systems.
Cyber attacks and ransomware are becoming more complex and more common. Your organisation is already in the fight. Stack the odds more in your favour, by getting Fundamentals First’s Security Operations Centre protecting you today.
