Lupin hit by cyberattack; threat increases for pharma firms amid COVID-19

Pharmaceutical firm Lupin has disclosed that it was hit by a cyberattack that affected some of its IT systems. Mumbai-based Lupin became the second major Indian pharmaceutical company to be hit by a similar attack.

However, the company's core system and operation remained safe, according to a report by the Indian Express.

Two weeks ago, servers of Dr Reddy's Laboratories were targeted by a ransomware attack after which the Hyderabad-firm "isolated" its data centre. The cyberattack on Dr Reddy's server occurred just days after the company received DCGI's approval to conduct a clinical trial of Russia's Sputnik-V vaccine in the country.

Recently, Indian pharma companies are witnessing rampant cyber threats as they are delivering affordable medicines on a large scale amid the coronavirus pandemic. The rising cyber-attacks could also be attributed to the fact that India is among the countries in front of the race to find a cure for COVID-19.

Although Lupin is not involved in any coronavirus-related vaccine development, it launched its version of favipiravir drug that is prescribed to patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms.

According to cybersecurity firm McAfee, there have been 605 per cent increase in coronavirus-related cyber disruptions globally. Such attacks are common in companies that are engaged in research, science, and technology--19 per cent rise between July and September.

The McAfee report said India faced 425,000 cloud security breaches and related cybersecurity incidents during July-September.  The report added that globally, only 561 incidents of cybersecurity breaches have been publicly reported to governments and regulators until November.

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