In the pharmaceutical sector, access to data is crucial for the research that goes into the manufacturing of new drugs. These drug companies require access to vast amounts of patients’ protected health information (PHI), the use of which is heavily regulated by privacy laws such as HIPAA and HITECH. By law, this data has to be adequately protected to safeguard the identity and privacy of patient medical records. 
 

In order to conduct the research needed, pharmaceutical companies have to share PHI with third parties such as doctors, researchers, and labs, among others. This important research ultimately leads to a better quality of health service and patient quality of life, but there is a darker side to the altruistic pursuit of new drugs. Patient data is an easy sell on the dark web. 
 

There is another area that is high-risk. The pharmaceutical industry is extremely competitive and the results of clinical trials and new patents are vulnerable to data breaches and internal threats. It’s not unknown for competitors to plant staff for the purpose of keeping an eye open. 
 

It is critical not only to protect patient data and valuable intellectual property but also to control access to this information at every point.

How Can Sensitive Data Discovery Help?

 
Sensitive Data Discovery is a form of data protection that discovers and classifies sensitive data across databases and devices. It allows you to locate instances of PHI and sensitive data elements, such as those included in confidential intellectual property, and classify them according to the level of risk. 
 

Sensitive Data Discovery gives you detailed visibility of your data and tells you exactly where it is stored in your organization. Once located you can take immediate remedial action such as automated data masking to protect sensitive data and limit access to who can see it. This reduces the risk of data loss and internal threats dramatically. 
 

Automating these data protection processes allows you to streamline your protection and access control, not only reducing organizational-wide risk but meeting your compliance obligations with privacy laws as well. 

The loss of pharmaceutical data can have disastrous effects. Data breaches are costly, but the reputational damage and undermining of trust can result in the production of much-needed drugs coming to a sudden stop. 
 

Hush-Hush Data Protection Solutions include Sensitive Data Discovery and patented Data Masking components that allow you to protect sensitive data at the production level, control access, and keep your data protected wherever it goes.
 

Request a free demo now.