K7 Dialogue – Conversation With Sanjiv Ranjan, Cybersecurity Advisor

Most humans and companies, big and small, have had covid challenges. Most non-essential employees are working from home. The company network now extends to include individual employees’ home networks and devices, including laptops and phones. Like any other company, pharmaceutical companies had to ensure that their expanded network and data were protected. Zero-Trust and micro-segmentation have become a priority. We cannot control nature, but we must be prepared for what may come next.

Comprehensive real-time visibility – Traffic Analysis, Privileged Access, and Configuration Changes – combined with threat intelligence feeds and ongoing red team exercise Access control – No internal user access without MFA. Strictly limit access to critical data; privileged user access attestation every 30 days Data Encryption – All data is encrypted in transmission, no exception. A limited number of users have access to the encryption keys Secure Service Accounts Secure code deployments Process to automate, prioritise, and mitigate vulnerabilities and patch challenges Effective boundary defence

Privacy is a fundamental right of all humans across the globe. Each of us has the right to our lives and our data, including the right to know who has access to our data and why. This right should not be based on boundaries but should be seen as a universal right of all humans. Here are a few things any company can do to protect their employee and customer data: Ensure all personal data – including Race (Caste), DOB, Health Information/Records, Address, Political Beliefs – is protected from unauthorised use. All-access is enabled on a need-to-know basis. All-access to personal data is managed and monitored Different countries may have additional regulations when it comes to data privacy. However, at the simplest level, if you follow GDPR, you will meet 90% of the world’s data protection requirements and a lot more, including all of Europe, Japan, the USA, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, etc. That will be a great start

Digital transformation is core to business growth and customer satisfaction. Data drives digital transformation. For the business’s success, it is critical to ensure that team members have access to the right data at the right time to make efficient and risk-managed decisions. However, internal and external hackers are also trying to access these business crown jewels – PHI, PII, Customer Information, Intellectual Property, Sales and Financial Data, etc. This is a significant challenge for security teams. Most security teams do not have a comprehensive view of what constitutes critical and where it is stored – in the data centre, in the cloud, on users’ laptops, or at a vendor site. Identifying corporate crown jewels and implementing proper controls to protect the crown jewels is a complex and time- and resource-intensive task that gets postponed. Data loss is business lost. Let us make sure the security team knows What and Where are our crown jewels, and ensure they are well protected and secured from internal and external threats.