Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Information Systems and Technology

Department

Information and Decision Sciences

First Reader/Committee Chair

Dr. William Butler

Abstract

Biotechnology encompasses the use of research on both biology and technology to create products that can advance in areas such as healthcare and agriculture. Because of the technology and products that arise from the use of biotechnology, the industry is especially targeted by cyber-attacks. A prominent type of cyber-attack that is utilized by cyber criminals on biotechnology is ransomware. The goal of this project is to determine the impact of ransomware on biotechnology. The research questions posed are: Q1) What are real examples of ransomware attacks that have occurred on biotechnology companies and what patterns can be identified by these impacts? Q2) What is the financial, operational, and reputational impact of ransomware attacks on biotechnology companies? Q3) What cybersecurity strategies and mitigation techniques can biotechnology companies implement to reduce the risk of ransomware attacks in the future? The method for data collection is the use of online databases such as Google and Google Scholar in order to find different articles to support my claims. Each of these articles are used to best answer the primary research questions that have been posed. A search for articles that are related to ransomware attacks and biotechnology was conducted in order to determine the impact of ransomware on biotechnology companies. The findings and results of the literature review are broken down into three sections, each section answering the research question posed. For question 1, the overall findings of the articles discussed real examples of ransomware attacks to biotechnology companies such as Enzo Biochem, 10x Genomics, and Evotec which were all attacked through similar vulnerabilities including phishing and unsecured access. For question 2, the literature review found that ransomware attacks have a significant impact to biotechnology companies, financially, operationally, and reputationally, resulting in lack of innovation, disturbed research processes, stakeholder mistrust, and revenue losses. For question 3, it was found that a multidisciplinary approach of cybersecurity strategies and mitigation techniques such as staff training, proper identification of attacks, system notification protocols, decoy files, understanding Shannon entropy, Controlled Folder Access (CFA), and monitoring Master File Table (MFT) logs are needed to reduce the risk of ransomware attacks in the future.

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