Operational technology security and safety in life sciences – EY Consulting

Cybersecurity is a major threat to organizations of all kinds. But until recently, relatively few life science companies have considered the potential ris

Sourced through Scoop.it from: consulting.ey.com

Hackers can bleed tech companies of their money, what would they not do to those which use that technology? Having increased and increasing its use of operational technology, the healthcare and life sciences industry will need protection for their equipment, from viruses, malfunctions, but mainly hackers. Some of the problems the industry must remedy before it moves on.

• The type of system for each sector varies, constructing a complex network of equipment which becomes difficult to account for. Explained in the article, “System-dedicated networks, multiple domains and dedicated supporting systems (i.e., engineering tools and backup solutions) require more resources to achieve a maturity level comparable with IT. It also greatly increases the complexity in monitoring and maintaining security levels.”
• The Industrial Revolution 4.0 is influencing pharmaceutical manufacturing environments. It makes them more effective; however “New protocols (including wireless) or mesh network architectures increase the number of potential access points to the network and require a different approach to security.”
• The article here illuminates the best on the effects of new legacy systems, “As OT system vendors prefer proven, reliable technologies, at the point of implementation, some OT systems are already only supporting obsolete, insecure operating systems. The security aspect alone is very rarely a driver to replace a vendor who is offering the most effective manufacturing equipment. On the other hand, OT system vendors do not feel obliged to increase the security capabilities of their systems — the technical specifications released by life science organizations at the system acquisition stage rarely include any security requirements at all.”

These aren’t all, but the from these one can gauge that the healthcare and life sciences industry will need more OT security, soon.