The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Hack - What is Big Pharma Hiding From You?
During the summer of last year, there was a growing controversy
surrounding the FDA’s request to hackers to expose holes in medical
devices security, such as insulin devices and other wireless and
computer connected home and hospital devices. Understandably, many
hackers and security experts were not particularly keen to attempt or
test the security of these devices, for fear of incorrect perception,
and potential outcry. In December last year, the FDA was itself the
target of an hacking operation, in particular the system used by
pharmaceutical companies to input data on drug tests, results, clinical
trials, and so on. Whether this was an attack by cyber thieves, as the
FDA claims, or hacktivists remains to be seen.
Corporate Theft or Exposing the Truth?
The FDA of course, was quick to denounce the attack as a cyber theft. The information reported to have been accessed included
medical trial data, marketing information and strategy, and information
about drug manufacturing. While on the surface, we could very well
accept that this could be a simple case of corporate espionage, it is
worth remembering that any company that wants drug approval in the US
has to go through the FDA first. Is running the risk of potentially
alienating the very body that approves your products a strategy that a
multi billion dollar pharmaceutical company would really undertake?
While it can’t be rules out as a possibility, unless the hackers come
forward, it does seem unlikely. It’s also important to remember that
there is a large amount of controversy surrounding the pharmaceutical
industry all over the world, but especially in the states. Could
hacktivists have been responsible for the attack? If so, what could be
the causes for such as attack? As we will see, there may be more than we
might initially think.
Practice and Method - How Big Pharma Operates
In the US alone, it is estimated that around 70% of the population takes
prescription drugs. Given the amount of people in the US is estimated
to be over 300 million, that is a staggering number. With such a large
amount of people taking these drugs, addiction rates are rising rapidly -
so much so, that currently prescription addicts are more common than
illegal drug addicts. It is a very real problem that continues to be
skirted around by the US regulators and administration. In fact, where
as knowing the signs of heroin or crack cocaine addiction were important
pieces of information for people who suspected they may have an addict
among friends or family, the same is now true for widely available
prescription drugs, and many Americans are being encouraged to learn more about the potential causes and signs of prescription drug abuse, by drug charities and non profit institutions.
At the center of this problem lies the pharmaceutical industry. Adverts
for medications are common, and standard practice for getting new drugs
to market includes rigging clinical trials to get the desired results in
clever ways that do not outright break the law, invasive marketing
schemes on family doctors and consumers, where doctors will often be
offered ‘sweeteners’ such as free lunches, travel to events, or even
help building their reputation as speakers at industry funded
conferences. The FDA is also, despite being an independent regulatory
body, often effectively ‘bought out’ by companies looking to get drugs
to market fast. There is the additional problem that all drug test data
is not available for public consumption, meaning academics and doctors
are unable to view results of tests or trials for themselves. This has
led to a number of large law suits in the US, and around the world, as
well as in extreme cases, deaths directly related to withheld side
affects of new drugs.
Coincidence or Calculated?
We might then speculate on the nature of the accessed data once again.
Bearing in mind the nature of how the industry operates, and the
information that was accessed, we could quite easily draw a link between
the two, and surmise that the hack may well have been the work of a
hacktivist movement. Of course, there is no way to prove whether this
was the case or not, but given the ambitious actions of a number of
groups over the last few years, it certainly can’t be ruled out.
Disclaimer:- At perfection Team VOGH felicitate Eve Halton for sharing this luminous article with our readers. Eve is a very much passionate Fleet Street, she has done her graduation in International Business and Journalism. Eve, this time also you have done eminent job, we love you :)
