5 Reasons to Protect the Performance and Security of Your Pharmaceutical Business

One of the greatest lessons resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is to expect the unexpected and proactively prepare for the unknowns of the future. Like many others, the pharmaceutical industry has been revolutionized by accelerated digital transformation over the last few years. Research has shown that pharma leaders investing in the Internet of Things (IoT) are better equipped to overcome unforeseen challenges.

For these proactive pharmaceutical leaders, two major areas have become increasingly important: preventing network outages and increasing security against cyberattacks. The 2021 State of Pharmaceuticals and Cybersecurity Report from Fortinet found that in the last year, 40 percent of businesses experienced outages affecting productivity, safety, compliance, revenue, or brand image. These outages are no small glitches: Industry experts estimate the total downtime cost (TDC) of a production disruption ranges from $100,000 to $500,000 per hour. A few disruptions a year can have a massive effect on the bottom line. This necessitates network and application performance management to minimize downtime.

If the impact of network outages on reputation, output, and the bottom line were not enough, pharmaceutical companies also have had to combat rampant cyberattacks. The rapid expansion of their attack surface has created visibility gaps and increased their risk. There has long been a growing desire for network operations (NetOps) and security operations (SecOps) teams to collaborate and share information. In some cases, early-stage planning, common budgets, and project-level cooperation have improved and enhanced cross-team collaboration. In fact, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) studies have shown that 78 percent of enterprises have some formal collaboration between the two groups, with 47 percent fully converging the groups with shared tools and processes.

NETSCOUT solutions help collaboration between NetOps and SecOps as they proactively protect businesses from both a security and network and application performance management standpoint. Here are five major reasons this is important for pharmaceutical companies:

1. Understand your attack surface. Your proprietary information, such as secret formulas, trial results, and other strictly confidential company information, are attractive targets for bad actors to gain access to and either sell on the dark web or ransom back for potentially millions of dollars. Know where that information is and protect it. NETSCOUT’s scalable packet-level network visibility with patented Adaptive Service Intelligence (ASI) technology converts packet data into a rich source of unique layer 2–7 metadata that we call Smart Data. Smart Data enables you to see the data that matters so you can assure the application performance of your critical services for authorized employees while also protecting it from security threats.
2. Comply with manufacturing regulations. Network uptime is essential to meet the production standards in the pharma industry. If monitoring, processing, shipping, and tracking of goods through manufacturing ecosystems were not complex enough, you also must meet strict regulations to maintain compliance. NETSCOUT network and application performance management provides advanced warning of system degradations and empowers NetOps teams to determine the scope and impact of issues via problem isolation and triage. Our solutions allow for “back in time” investigation to ensure gaps in compliance are addressed as quickly as possible. 
3. Secure customer data. As pharma companies move toward more digitization and storing of information online, they are becoming an easier target for bad actors looking to steal customer records that can be sold on the dark web for multiple nefarious purposes. Losing your customer data can cost lives, create identity theft, impact brand reputation, and subject you to massive fines for not meeting compliance requirements. Being able to detect known and unknown threats is critical, and network visibility is fundamental. NETSCOUT’s solutions provide better network visibility in combination with continuous threat intelligence feeds, empowering you with multiple types of detection for both known and unknown threats.
4. Maintain uptime and protect the bottom line. Reliability and maximum productivity are always top priorities for businesses. Pharmaceutical manufacturers that make smart investments in advanced technologies can benefit from improved operational efficiency, reduced downtime, and improved visibility and analytics. NETSCOUT’s solutions provide end-through-end visibility into network and application performance, leveraging Smart Data to identify the root cause of issues directly impacting the bottom line.
5. Consider the cost of a breach. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report, the healthcare industry ranks highest in terms of cost, with an average price tag of more than $10 million per breach and an 11-month cycle to identify and contain the breach. It is more important than ever to be able to reduce the mean time to knowledge (MTTK) and mean time to response (MTTR) to reduce the potential impacts of these breaches. NETSCOUT’s Omnis Cyber Intelligence solution is designed for seamless integration with your existing cybersecurity toolset to make your entire security stack stronger and more effective. Omnis Cyber Intelligence also integrates with your firewalls to instruct immediate blocking at the edge, and NETSCOUT’s Smart Data can be exported and combined with your other sources of data for custom analysis, filling the gaps in visibility to increase incident investigation efficiency and decreasing MTTR.

NETSCOUT believes in achieving what we call Visibility Without Borders by enabling a single source of smart packet-derived layer 2–7 metadata—NETSCOUT Smart Data—for more efficient service assurance and cybersecurity. NETSCOUT gives you the most comprehensive attack surface observability in the industry and provides continuous intelligence, with real-time detection of all network activity, so you can halt attackers in their tracks.

See how NETSCOUT network and security solutions can make a difference in your organization.