Merck Says Cyber Attack Halted Production, Will Hurt Profits

Posted: 08/08/2017 | Leave a Comment

Drug and vaccine maker Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) said it suffered a worldwide disruption of its operations when it was the victim of an international cyber attack in June, halting production of its drugs, which will hurt its profits for the rest of the year.

The company said it does not yet understand the full magnitude of the impact as it is in the process of restoring manufacturing operations. It disclosed the attack last month, but did not disclose the manufacturing shutdown at the time.

“Full recovery from the cyber-attack will take some time, but we are making steady progress,” Chief Executive Ken Frazier said on a conference call as the company reported quarterly results.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-merck-co-results-idUSKBN1AD1AO

The DoD Cybersecurity Policy Chart

This chart captures the tremendous breadth of applicable policies, some of which many cybersecurity professionals may not even be aware, in a helpful organizational scheme.

View the Policy Chart

Featured Subject Matter Expert (SME): Cully Patch

An internal CSIAC SME with a passion for learning, teaching, and supporting the warfighter, Mr. Cully Patch has been a member of the CSIAC staff for 5 years. Cully was instrumental in leading the development and instruction of an extensive course on DoD Cybersecurity Analysis and Reporting (DoDCAR) - a threat-based approach to addressing system cybersecurity. As a senior program manager for cybersecurity and intelligence, Mr. Patch has extensive experience in providing cybersecurity training and education to both university students and military operators. Cully is a retired US Air Force military officer with career accomplishments in the fields of research, Intelligence, cybersecurity operations, planning, and technical course instruction. CSIAC is honored to have Mr. Patch as a subject matter expert, where he leads teams of technologists through problem solving, training program development, scientific and technical information generation, and analysis of complex system requirements.

View SME's Contributed Content

CSIAC Report - Smart Cities, Smart Bases and Secure Cloud Architecture for Resiliency by Design

Integration of Smart City Technologies to create Smart Bases for DoD will require due diligence with respect to the security of the data produced by Internet of Things (IOT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT). This will increase more so with the rollout of 5G and increased automation "at the edge". Commercially, data will be moving to the cloud first, and then stored for process improvement analysis by end-users. As such, implementation of Secure Cloud Architectures is a must. This report provides some use cases and a description of a risk based approach to cloud data security. Clear understanding, adaptation, and implementation of a secure cloud framework will provide the military the means to make progress in becoming a smart military.

Read the Report

CSIAC Journal - Data-Centric Environment: Rise of Internet-Based Modern Warfare “iWar”

This journal addresses a collection of modern security concerns that range from social media attacks and internet-connected devices to a hypothetical defense strategy for private sector entities.

Read the Journal

CSIAC Journal M&S Special Edition - M&S Applied Across Broad Spectrum Defense and Federal Endeavors

This Special Edition of the CSIAC Journal highlights a broad array of modeling and simulation contributions – whether in training, testing, experimentation, research, engineering, or other endeavors.

Read the Journal

CSIAC Journal - Resilient Industrial Control Systems (ICS) & Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)

This edition of the CSIAC Journal focuses on the topic of cybersecurity of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), particularly those that make up Critical Infrastructure (CI).

Read the Journal