The Real Insider Risk? It’s Broken Promises, Not Broken Firewalls

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Paul Curwell

4–5 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  1. Most insider risk comes from disengagement and broken promises that breeds complacency.
  2. Every employee has a written employment contract — and an unwritten psychological contract. Leaders break the latter by tone, decisions, and neglect, destroying compliance, IP protection, and security culture.
  3. Fixing insider risk is a leadership and culture job: rebuild trust, design human-centred security, and make psychological safety non-negotiable.

When Everyday Shortcuts Turn Into Insider Incidents

Let me start with something I’ve seen more times than I care to admit. Picture a mid-sized Australian tech or engineering business. Solid team, tight deadlines, not enough hours in the day. One of the long-serving employees — let’s call him Sam — quietly stops using the secure file transfer process because it slows everything down. He’s not trying to cause trouble; he’s just trying to keep up.

Over time, that workaround becomes the “unofficial way we do things.” No one corrects it, and Sam assumes it’s fine — until a contractor’s system gets compromised and sensitive design files leak. Suddenly a behaviour that once looked harmless triggers a full-blown insider incident.

This is exactly how most insider events begin in SMBs: not with a malicious actor, but with a frustrated, overloaded employee taking the path of least resistance because the environment around them makes compliance feel optional.

Worker mistreatment: The hidden threat to your business

Insider Incidents Hit Business Where It Hurts

The Australian numbers back what many of us see on the ground. Insider risk isn’t a fringe problem — it’s now one of the core business risks facing high-tech SMBs.

The OAIC recorded 1,113 data breaches in 2024, the highest since mandatory reporting began — and 30% were caused by human error, not hackers.¹ Another 5% came from malicious or rogue insiders.¹

And when these incidents involve knowledge leakage or sensitive IP — the kind of material SMBs rely on — the average cost is US$2.8 million per incident (~AU$4.2 million).⁶ That’s not theory; that’s the financial reality for knowledge-intensive organisations when someone bypasses a process, uploads the wrong file, or shares information through an insecure channel.

Insider risk isn’t just a cybersecurity issue. It’s a direct business cost — lost trade secrets, disrupted projects, contract delays, and expensive remediation.

Hiring From Competitors? You Could Be One Lawsuit Away from a Legal Nightmare

Insider Risks Rise When Psychological Contracts Break

Here’s the part leaders don’t always see — and in my 20 years of dealing with insider risk, it’s the uncomfortable truth that makes all the difference.

Complacent employees don’t disengage instantly — they fade. Insider risks don’t start with bad intentions. They start with small cracks in the relationship between people and leadership. When workloads become unsustainable, communication dries up, people leaders get overloaded, or priorities shift without explanation, employees don’t lash out — they withdraw. They get quieter. They worry about their future. And eventually, they look after themselves first.

The psychological contract breaks long before the written one. This unwritten agreement — built from tone, fairness, growth opportunities, and leader behaviour under pressure — dictates whether people follow processes willingly. When it breaks, employees stop going the extra step. They cut corners. They tune out. And that’s when insider incidents begin.

In other words: insider threats don’t emerge in a vacuum. They emerge when the workplace environment makes compliance feel difficult, unrewarded, or irrelevant.

What Leaders Can Do (Four Practical Moves)

Insider risk management isn’t a technical challenge — it’s a leadership discipline. Technology helps identify where problems are bubbling, but it can’t fix the human root cause. Here’s how to turn the tide:

  1. Create Psychological Safety
    People need to feel safe admitting mistakes, raising concerns, and reporting anomalies. If teams fear judgment or consequences, they will stay silent — and silence is where insider incidents hide.
  2. Design Human-Centred Security
    Controls must actually work in the flow of real work. If security friction becomes overwhelming, people will bypass it. Middle managers must be involved in redesigning processes so controls support productivity, not fight it.
  3. Lead Through Uncertainty
    During restructures, cost pressure, AI disruption, or operational change, employees look to leaders for meaning and direction. Clear communication prevents fear-based behaviours that increase both accidental and malicious insider risk.
  4. Rebuild the Psychological Contract
    This isn’t about perks — it’s about predictability, fairness, respect, and care. People need to see a path forward, feel valued, and believe leadership behaviour matches the organisation’s stated values. When the psychological contract is healthy, compliance becomes natural — not forced.
6 steps to improving security and integrity culture in the workplace

Conclusion

Most insider risks don’t rise because employees suddenly become untrustworthy. They rise when leadership, culture, and work conditions drift in ways that make compliance harder, not easier.

If we want to reduce insider events in Australia’s high-tech SMB sector, adding more controls isn’t enough. We need to understand the human dynamics that cause people to break them — often unintentionally.

And that starts with leaders.

Further Reading

Understanding Insider Threat Modelling for Accurate Detection

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Paul Curwell

6–9 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  1. Insider threat detection isn’t just about data loss – it’s about understanding real human behaviour in context.
  2. Threat modelling bridges the gap between policies and detection systems by showing how insiders act, not just what they access.
  3. You can’t buy insight out of a box – bespoke insider threat models are what separate resilient organisations from reactive ones.

Introduction: The elephant in the SOC

Most insider threat programs are built for compliance, not reality. They look impressive on paper – codes of conduct, HR policies, and a security awareness slide deck that gets dusted off once a year.

But when something actually happens – a researcher walking out with proprietary samples, a technician sabotaging production lines, or an airline baggage handler smuggling for organised crime – those controls rarely stop or detect it early. They tell you after the fact that someone broke the rules.

That’s the problem. We’ve built programs to spot “bad clicks” and phishing emails, but not the subtle, slow-burn insider behaviours that lead to stolen trade secrets, fraud, or sabotage.

And if you’re in sectors like biotech, manufacturing, or critical infrastructure, those are the threats that can end your business, not just dent your cyber metrics.

Exploring Microsoft’s 2025 Updates: Impact on Insider Risk Management and Information Protection

The data doesn’t lie – it just doesn’t tell the full story

Let’s talk numbers for a second. The 2024 Ponemon Institute Cost of Insider Risks report found that the average global cost of an insider incident hit USD $16.2 million, up 40% in three years. The ACSC reports that a cyber incident is reported every six minutes in Australia, costing SMBs an average of AUD $49,600 per attack.

Unfortunately – those stats focus almost entirely on cyber insiders. They track stolen files, data exfiltration, and credential misuse. What they don’t measure are the equally damaging cases where employees or contractors misuse knowledge, materials, or access in ways that don’t leave a digital trail.

Think about it: a scientist copying a research protocol onto a notebook isn’t a “cyber incident”. A factory engineer tweaking production code to slow down a competitor’s contract isn’t either. Yet both are insider threats.

That’s where insider threat modelling comes in.

What is Insider Threat Modelling (and why it matters)

Insider threat modelling is the process of mapping out how someone could abuse their role to harm your organisation. It’s not theoretical – it’s practical, scenario-driven, and tailored to your business processes.

In my experience, most organisations have “baseline” insider controls – vetting, codes of conduct, and maybe a data loss prevention tool. Those are fine for general hygiene, but they don’t tell you how a specific role (say, a lab technician or baggage handler) could exploit their day-to-day tasks to commit harm.

Threat modelling helps you anticipate that. It forces you to ask questions like:

  • What are this role’s key responsibilities?
  • Where are the opportunities for abuse or error?
  • What behaviours might signal a developing risk?

Once you’ve mapped that out, you can design detection and monitoring systems that actually make sense for that context. It’s the difference between blanket surveillance and targeted prevention.

Unlocking New Uses for your SIEM: Beyond Cybersecurity

Example 1: The baggage handler who broke the model

One of the easiest examples to grasp is aviation baggage handling.

Everyone’s seen how it works: bags come off the plane, go into the cargo bay, and end up on the carousel. Simple. But when you map the process, you realise there are dozens of access points, moments of unsupervised control, and handoffs that aren’t monitored.

When I’ve modelled insider threats, I start by diagramming the legitimate workflow – the steps a baggage handler takes in a normal day. Then I layer on “what if” deviations: what if they swap a bag, conceal something, or divert items through a service door? Each deviation becomes a branch in the model.

From that, we can identify behavioural indicators – patterns like inconsistent scanning sequences, off-hours access, or collaboration with others outside their assigned shift. Those insights then inform detection logic in your monitoring system.

It’s not about accusing everyone of being a criminal – it’s about understanding where human discretion and opportunity intersect.

a luggage conveyor inside airport
Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

Example 2: The biotech researcher who took more than data

Now, let’s move from the tarmac to the lab.

Imagine a biotech research facility working on proprietary cell lines for medical devices. A scientist has legitimate access to specimens, data, and analysis results. They’re trusted, credentialed, and have years of experience.

To detect this, start with building a scenario tree to explore how someone in that position could exfiltrate both data and physical samples. Start with the normal workflow – sample creation, analysis, documentation, and storage. Then look at deviations: collecting duplicate samples “for later work”, photographing lab results, or exporting data through an unmonitored side channel.

Subtle indicators give context to our behaviour – like a researcher accessing documentation repositories outside their assigned project hours, or increased file compression activity just before an external conference submission.

These aren’t “cyber” alerts in the traditional sense, but they’re gold when context is combined with threat modelling. Without that context, your detection system just sees another file access event.

ai generated biochemistry
Photo by Google DeepMind on Pexels.com

How threat modelling supercharges detection through typologies

The beauty of insider threat modelling is that it directly feeds into detection design.

Here’s how it works in practice:

  1. Map the role and workflow – understand what “normal” looks like.
  2. Identify potential deviations – the specific ways someone could misuse that role.
  3. Translate those deviations into typologies – indicators, actions, behaviours, or sequences that could signal a problem.
  4. Feed those indicators into detection systems – whether it’s a SIEM, DLP, or behavioural analytics platform.

That process bridges the gap between your policies and your technology. Most vendor tools are “one-size-fits-all” – they’ll detect generic anomalies like “unusual logins” or “large data transfers”. Useful, but shallow.

Threat modelling lets you build detection rules that make sense for your business. It means your system knows the difference between a late-night researcher working on a deadline and a departing employee siphoning trade secrets.

“Typologies” Sound Boring – But They Could Save Your Business Millions

Why you can’t buy this off the shelf

This is the part where most executives sigh and ask, “Can’t I just buy a solution for that?”

Short answer: no.

There’s no product that can model your people, processes, and culture. Vendors can sell you analytics platforms, but they can’t tell you what to look for in your environment. In fact, in many cases with the exception of data theft and corporate IT systems, they don’t really know. That’s why organisations that rely solely on off-the-shelf tools often end up drowning in false positives and still miss the real risks.

Building bespoke insider threat models doesn’t have to be complicated. Start small: pick a high-risk role, map its workflow, and ask, “Where could this go wrong?” That’s it. You’ll be surprised how much clarity comes from simply visualising your own processes through a threat lens.

Call to Action: Build, don’t buy, your insider threat insight

If you’re serious about protecting your trade secrets, IP, and reputation, you can’t afford to rely on generic cyber controls or vendor dashboards.

Insider threat modelling gives you the missing context – it turns detection from guesswork into foresight.

So here’s my challenge: stop asking your SOC to find needles in haystacks. Instead, build the haystack smarter.

Start modelling the threats that actually exist in your organisation – because the insider you should worry about isn’t the one in the brochure. It’s the one following your process perfectly… until they don’t.

Further Reading

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

Traditional Fraud Controls Catch Thieves. Oceans Eleven Catches You

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Paul Curwell

4–6 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  1. Traditional fraud and security programs focus on unorganised threats — the opportunists — while missing the organised adversaries that cause the biggest losses.
  2. Organised threats are networked, well-resourced, and adaptive. They operate across cyber, physical, personnel, and supply chain domains — not in silos.
  3. Intelligence converts unknowns into knowns — turning surprise into foresight and letting prevention and detection systems actually work.

“If your controls only handle what you understand, you’re not managing risk — you’re babysitting it.”

Why You Should Care About Organised Threats

Most corporate risk, security, and fraud programs are built to stop mistakes and misdemeanours — not missions. They’re optimised for the unorganised: The opportunistic employee who pads an expense claim, the petty thief stealing tools, or the scammer testing stolen cards. These are important, but they’re predictable. Controls handle them well because the patterns are known.

But that’s not where the real damage comes from.

Organised threats cause disproportionate harm

  • According to the ACFE’s 2024 Report to the Nations, fraud involving collusion or organised groups costs 4.5x more per case than solo incidents.
  • In the Sinovel Wind Group case, insider collusion led to over US$800 million in losses and wiped out more than 90% of the victim’s market value.
  • The HMS Bulwark fuel theft showed how diversion and timing — not technology — enabled a successful supply chain attack.
  • In contrast, the Los Angeles rail thefts were chaotic, opportunistic, and noisy — classic unorganised crime.
Los Angeles rail hijackings – a form of cargo theft

When customers or investors see a business lose control of its people, IP, or supply chain, the damage isn’t just financial — it’s trust erosion. Customer attrition and revenue loss follow fast.

“Organised threats don’t just steal assets. They steal confidence. They erode trust.”

Theft of fuel from HMS Bulwark – a diversion case study

Organised vs Unorganised Threats: What’s the Difference?

Unorganised threats cause events. Organised threats run campaigns. The first can be prevented through policy and detection; the second requires intelligence and coordination across all of your organisational silos – cyber, physical, personnel, supply chain.

Here’s how I explain it to boards and executive teams:

AttributeUnorganised ThreatsOrganised Threats
NatureOpportunistic, spontaneousPlanned, resourced, intent-driven
ActorsLone individuals, careless insidersNation-states, organised crime, colluding insiders
MotivationQuick gain, revenge, convenienceStrategic advantage, market share, economic or political goals
MethodsLow-tech theft, simple fraud, random phishingMulti-vector campaigns (cyber, physical, human, supply chain)
VisibilityHigh — noisy and frequentLow — covert, long-term, adaptive
ExampleLA rail cargo theftSinovel IP theft,
HMS Bulwark fuel diversion
ResponseControls:
deter, delay, detect		Effects:
disrupt, deceive, degrade

What This Means for Fraud and Security Management

Most organisations still treat all threats as equal. They’re not.

Traditional programs focus on known knowns — the incidents you’ve already logged, investigated, and wrapped controls around. That’s compliance work, not intelligence.

Paul Curwell (2025). The relationship between awareness, understanding and strategy.

The intelligence function focuses on what sits beyond that — the known unknowns and unknown unknowns. Its job isn’t to “map indicators”; it’s to define typologies — the organised patterns of behaviour, relationships, and methods adversaries use to achieve their goals.

The goal is to move as many threats as possible into the green quadrant – the known knowns – where we can effectively do something about them.

Controls stop incidents. Typologies stop campaigns.

Typologies, as I wrote in Typologies Demystified, give structure to complexity. They let analysts anticipate how campaigns evolve, recognise early warning signs, and help operational teams detect activity before loss occurs.

When intelligence and operations work together, the result is a living system:

  • Prevention and detection stay tuned to the latest typologies manifested by threat actors.
  • New patterns and lessons learned from investigations and near misses feed back into intelligence and fine-tune deteciton models.
  • Intelligence continuously converts “unknowns” into “knowns” that your detection systems can handle.

That’s how you evolve faster than the adversary and become a harder target.

“Typologies” Sound Boring – But They Could Save Your Business Millions

Next Steps: Turning Insight Into Action

  1. Map your critical assets and dependencies.
    Identify what truly matters — your IP, R&D, manufacturing data, key suppliers. Organised adversaries target strategic assets, not just endpoints.
  2. Break your silos.
    Integrate physical, personnel, information, cyber, and supply chain teams into one view. Threats don’t care about your org chart.
  3. Develop typologies, not checklists.
    Use intelligence to describe how organised fraud, supply chain attacks, or insider threat campaigns actually unfold. Then train teams to detect those typologies.
  4. Feed intelligence into prevention and detection.
    Your fraud and insider threat controls should update dynamically from intelligence insights — not just audits or annual reviews.
  5. Disrupt early.
    When you spot signs of planning, recruitment, or reconnaissance — act. Raise costs for adversaries before they launch their campaign.

You can’t automate curiosity — but you can operationalise intelligence.

Further Reading

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

Exploring Microsoft’s 2025 Updates: Impact on Insider Risk Management and Information Protection

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Paul Curwell

8–11 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  • In Australia, a cyber incident hits a small business every six minutes, with an average cost of around AUD $49,600 (ACSC, 2024). Some analysts estimate that 50–60% of SMBs never fully recover after a serious breach — a stark reminder that security, including Microsoft Insider Risk Management, is a matter of business survival.
  • Insider threats remain an underappreciated risk for many SMBs.
  • The good news: if you already have Microsoft 365 E5, you own tools like Purview IRM, Sentinel, and Defender to protect your trade secrets and IP. Microsoft’s 2025 updates strengthen insider risk detection — but remember, technology alone won’t replace a complete insider risk management program.

Managing insider risk protects your business and your investors

According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC, 2024), a cyber incident hits a small business roughly every six minutes, with an average cost of AUD $49,600 per incident. Even worse, some commentators suggest that 50–60% of SMBs never fully recover after a serious cyber attack. That’s not just IT drama — that’s business survival at stake.

If your business is R&D-intensive — biotech, advanced manufacturing, materials science — then your currency is intellectual property. You breathe it, you sweat it, and let’s be honest, you probably worry constantly that someone will steal it. And the reality? That threat isn’t always knocking from outside your firewall. Often, the biggest risk comes from inside your own walls: departing scientists, disgruntled engineers, or even well-meaning employees who don’t realize that “just sharing” can leak your crown jewels.

Biotech and MedTech Investors Are Demanding Security and Resilience: Are You Ready?

When it comes to insider threats, most large companies, let alone SMBs, are still playing catch-up. In this article I will explain how you the tools you’re probably already paying for through your Microsoft licensing can help. But first, a short case study:

Case Study: The GSK Scientist

In a high-profile U.S. DOJ case, a GlaxoSmithKline scientist emailed proprietary drug formulas to a company in China, causing over $500 million in lost R&D and IP value.

Now imagine this scenario under Microsoft Purview + Sentinel in 2025:

  • The formulas live in SharePoint, Teams, or OneDrive and are labeled with sensitivity (e.g., “Confidential – R&D”).
  • Purview ties labels to protection rules: “cannot be emailed externally — or must require justification.”
  • Attempting to email triggers Insider Risk Management (IRM) alerts or blocks the action.
  • Sentinel’s UEBA detects abnormal behavior — unusually large downloads, off-hours activity, or new endpoints.
  • Alerts are combined across Purview, Defender XDR, and Sentinel, giving analysts a clear, high-priority case.
  • Purview’s data risk graph visualises 30 days of activity, helping triage faster.

With early detection and response by configuring tools you already have, this sort of damage to IP, commercialisation timelines, and investor confidence could be significantly reduced — maybe even avoided entirely.

If you already have Microsoft 365 E5, you own more of the solution than you think. And now, the latest 2025 updates to Purview and Sentinel have added serious muscle to detect and prevent insider threats — but only if you integrate them into a proper insider risk program and fill in the process gaps.

How Purview + Sentinel Fit Into Your Insider Risk Program

Here’s how Purview + Sentinel support the implementation of your Insider Risk Program:

Program ComponentWhat Purview / Sentinel Provide (2025)What Program Managers Must DoGaps / Limitations
Asset Identification & ClassificationSensitivity labeling and Unified Data Catalogue classify documents, Teams content, and metadata.Maintain your IP inventory, map critical projects, and align labels to business value.Doesn’t cover physical lab notebooks, test rigs, or bespoke machinery metadata.
Policy Definition & Risk IndicatorsConfigure policies in Purview IRM (e.g., “sharing of Confidential documents”) and integrate generative AI risk indicators.Decide which policies matter, define thresholds, and engage legal/HR.Microsoft provides generic templates—not biotech-specific models like gene sequences.
Behavioral Analytics & DetectionSentinel UEBA builds baselines, flags deviations, and correlates with IRM alerts.Tune models regularly, review false positives, and interpret alerts in domain context (e.g., why a scientist downloaded 10 GB after hours).Entity profiles may miss domain nuances like lab equipment logs or custom LIMS.
Continuous Monitoring & Log RetentionSentinel Data Lake allows long-term retention and unified analytics; Purview data risk graphs visualize user activity over time.Decide which logs to ingest (QMS, LIMS, endpoints) and maintain connectors.Doesn’t automatically capture lab instrument logs or IoT devices without custom integration.
Access Control & OffboardingIRM ties into DLP and Entra conditional access; alerts feed into Defender XDR & Sentinel for unified incident management.Enforce least privilege, automate offboarding, and review permissions periodically.No direct control over physical access systems or lab network zones outside Microsoft domain.
Training & CultureInsights highlight risky behavior trends and feed training content.Run tailored awareness programs, embed reporting culture, and address willful breaches.Tools don’t provide morale incentives or human trust programs—that’s still on you.
Incident Response & InvestigationAlerts integrate across IRM and UEBA; workflows allow escalation.Define incident playbooks, coordinate with HR/legal, and conduct root cause analyses.Doesn’t integrate into lab SOPs, physical forensics, or external partner investigations.

The takeaway? The tools assist, but they don’t replace your program. Success comes from aligning process, domain knowledge, and tool tuning.

Benefits and Limitations of the Lastest Update

Most SMBs already have Microsoft 365 E5, which as of 2025 includes:

  • Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management & Information Protection – label sensitive data, prevent unauthorized sharing, and configure insider risk policies.
  • Microsoft Sentinel – aggregate alerts, correlate user/device/system events, and analyze anomalous behavior with UEBA.
  • Defender for Cloud Apps – monitor shadow IT, risky data exfiltration, and suspicious external sharing.

These tools are powerful — but they work best when embedded in a full insider risk program that combines technology, policies, monitoring, and response.

The benefits of UEBA illustrated with a simple example:
Meet Dr. Lee, your molecular biologist: Normally, Dr. Lee downloads 2 GB from SharePoint each evening. UEBA quietly learns that pattern. One night, Dr. Lee downloads 20 GB and tries to email a zip labeled “Confidential – Patent2027” externally. Purview IRM immediately flags it. UEBA notices the 10× spike and unusual context — after hours, from a new endpoint — correlates it with the IRM alert, and surfaces a high-priority anomaly. Analysts see it in Sentinel, triage the alert, and kick off the response. The key point here is that UEBA doesn’t monitor every email or attachment. That’s IRM/DLP territory. Instead, UEBA focuses on patterns, deviations, and context, giving you the early warning signs before any damage is done.

When it comes to using this practically, however, there are some limitations that you’ll need to keep in mind:

  • QMS/LIMS logs: These systems store formulas, protocols, and test data. Purview and Sentinel don’t automatically ingest them — you’ll need APIs, Syslog, or custom connectors to detect anomalies in your crown-jewel IP.
  • Physical security systems: Badge access logs (e.g., Gallagher Command Centre) can feed into Sentinel UEBA via REST APIs, correlating physical and digital access.
  • Policy alignment: Insider Risk Management policies must coordinate IT, compliance, and R&D to cover all sensitive assets effectively.
Integrating Security into Quality Management Systems

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Let’s talk dollars — because even the best plan is irrelevant if it’s financially out of reach.

Access via E5: Your Hidden Advantage

If you already have Microsoft 365 E5, many Purview insider risk features — IRM, sensitivity labeling, and analytics — are already included. You don’t need to pay more; you just need to turn them on and configure them thoughtfully.

Sentinel Pricing Model

  • Sentinel charges per GB of data ingested, plus extra for long-term retention.
  • The new Sentinel Data Lake GA reduces the cost of historic logs (1–2 years).
  • High-volume sources like IoT devices or lab instrument logs can push ingestion costs up, so start with high-value systems first.

Implementation & Ongoing Management Costs

Consulting to deploy, tune, and integrate Sentinel + Purview usually starts around USD ~$25,000 for modest scopes. Costs typically cover:

  • Policy workshops — which trade secrets need which protections
  • Connecting QMS/LIMS/instrument logs via custom middleware
  • Alert tuning, user onboarding, and training
  • Ongoing maintenance — reviewing false positives, adjusting thresholds, rotating policies

You’ll also need a security analyst or compliance lead (or a good consultant) to monitor alerts, triage cases, and evolve the models.

So what does this mean for you? The cost of doing nothing is far higher: lost investor confidence, competitive leakage, and compromised commercialization. Even a single IP breach that trims your valuation by 5% in a funding round could outweigh all of these tool and service costs combined.

Crafting Security Business Cases for Executive Buy-in

Putting It All Together: 6 Steps to Roll Out an Insider Risk Program

Here’s a practical roadmap you can follow:

  1. Audit Your E5 Entitlements
    Check which Purview insider risk features you already have. Chances are, you own more than you think — just waiting to be switched on.
  2. Pick Your Initial Policy Domain
    Keep it simple. Start with protecting R&D documents, blocking external sharing of “Confidential” files, and monitoring abnormal downloads.
  3. Connect Critical Systems Gradually
    Ingest data from SharePoint, Teams, QMS/LIMS, and instrument logs. Use the Insider Risk Indicators import path where possible. Start with your crown-jewel systems; you can expand later.
  4. Enable UEBA in Sentinel
    Turn on UEBA and let it build behavioral baselines over 30–90 days. This is where the tool learns what “normal” looks like for your team.
  5. Tune, Triage, Repeat
    Review alerts, adjust thresholds, suppress noise, and track metrics like alert volume, conversion rates, and response times. Insider risk management is iterative — not a set-and-forget exercise.
  6. Embed Process, Training & Governance
    Align IT, HR, legal, and management. Implement offboarding, access reviews, insider threat training, and domain-specific workflows. Tools alone aren’t enough; people and processes make the difference.

Call to Action: Pick a Small Use Case & Make It Real

Insider threats aren’t theoretical — they directly put your trade secrets, research, and commercialisation efforts at risk. Your Microsoft 365 E5 licence already gives you powerful tools, but only if deployed strategically within a formal insider risk program.

Start small: pick a critical system or high-value dataset, configure your policies, turn on UEBA, and watch how the alerts and patterns help you detect anomalous activity early. Over time, scale your coverage. Don’t let leaks or fraud cripple your business.

Further Reading

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

How to Enhance Detection with Comparative Case Analysis

Posted on by

Paul Curwell

5–7 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  • Comparative Case Analysis (CCA) isn’t just theory — it’s a practical method to connect the dots between trade secrets theft, fraud, insider threats, and supply chain abuse.
  • You don’t need a huge internal dataset — competitor incidents and cross-industry cases provide the patterns and behaviours you need to build robust typologies.
  • CCA creates tangible business value — done properly, it turns messy case data into insights that protect revenue, IP, and operational continuity, making you look good to management and investors.

What is Comparative Case Analysis?

Most companies already have clues sitting in plain sight — case files, legal documents, media reports, competitor incidents, industry analyses. But they rarely connect the dots. If you don’t connect the dots, you can’t detect threats early, which means losses escalate, your IP gets compromised, and supply chain integrity suffers before anyone even notices.

Comparative Case Analysis (CCA) fixes this. It might not show up in glamorous keynote speeches, but it gives you practical leverage: more accurate detection, fewer false alarms, and stronger business protection. If revenue protection, IP protection, and supply chain integrity matter to you (spoiler: they should), then this is your toolkit.

Comparative Case Analysis means taking several instances of risk events (fraud, IP theft, insider threat, etc.), comparing them systematically, extracting patterns, signatures, and behaviours, then using those insights to write typologies which are used to build detection mechanisms. It’s the bridge between one-off incidents and repeatable defence.

Even if your organisation is small, you can pull from competitors or other industries — because threats are surprisingly consistent.

Why Comparative Case Analysis Matters for Business

When you get CCA right, two big things happen:

  • Earlier detection – You start recognizing threats before they inflict material damage.
  • Higher accuracy & efficiency – You reduce false positives and false negatives, which means fewer wasted resources and more trust in your detection systems.

That opens the door to greater automation and AI usage. If you understand which threats matter and how they appear in your data, you can lean more on rules engines, models, or anomaly detection — meaning you don’t need huge analyst teams fire‑fighting all day.

The business value isn’t theoretical: avoided losses, protected IP, preserved revenue, fewer disruptions in your supply chain. Plus, when management or investors ask, you’ll have solid proof you’re not just “winging it.”

We often overlook criminology when combating insider threats, fraud and sabotage

The Comparative Case Analysis Value Chain

Here’s the refined flow I use (and teach):

Threats → Risk Events (cases) → CCA (comparison) → Typologies (including patterns, signatures, behaviours) → Detection = Business Value

If any link is weak, the value drops. If all are strong, you build a resilient, measurable defence.

How to Actually Do It (Step‑by‑Step)

Here’s the practical method I use. If you follow this, CCA becomes repeatable, grounded, and useful:

  1. Define your scope
    Decide which type(s) of threats matter most to you: IP theft, insider risk, supply chain fraud, etc. Also decide down to the industry, product, or technology level.
  2. Collect cases
    Pull from internal cases (incidents, near misses), competitor incidents, public legal filings, academia, and media. If you don’t have five useful internal examples, don’t worry — competitor- or cross‑industry cases are totally valid.
  3. Standardise the data
    For each case, capture things like: who, what, when, how, impact, what failed controls, what signatures/behaviours were present.
  4. Compare systematically
    Lay out your cases side by side. Look for recurring behaviours, misused access, insider‑outsider collusion, process failures. Don’t assume everything is causal — test what appears consistently.
  5. Extract typologies
    From those recurring behaviours/patterns, build your typologies: the defined set of patterns, signatures and behaviours that will become your detection requirements.
  6. Validate & test
    Apply typologies to fresh data or unseen cases. Measure whether you catch real threats and don’t swamp people with false positives. Refine aggressively.
  7. Monitor performance
    Track detection speed, false positives/negatives, cost of investigation vs. savings, and measurable risk reduction. If you’re not seeing clear value, revisit your typologies.
  8. Peer review
    Get someone not involved in your collection or initial comparison to critique: did you miss patterns? Are your assumptions reasonable?
  9. Evaluate reliability
    Are your detection rules trustworthy enough to rely on with minimal oversight? If not, iterate.
  10. Refresh regularly
    Threats evolve. You should revisit your typologies and the chain every year (or more often in fast‑moving tech sectors) to stay relevant.
“Typologies” Sound Boring – But They Could Save Your Business Millions

Real Case Examples to Learn From

Comparative Case Analysis might not win design awards, but it wins business protection. It turns messy case files into sharp detection requirements. Do it right, and you get fewer losses, protected IP, stable revenue, and less headache from the security/fraud team. For example:

  • Trade Secret Theft in Medtech: A departing engineer at a medical device company copied proprietary 3D printing designs for a new implant. The designs appeared at a competitor two months later. Compare the methods used to extract the IP, the timing, and which controls failed — then ask yourself: could this happen in your organisation?
  • Supply Chain Fraud in Electronics: Danish authorities recently discovered unlisted components in circuit boards purchased from overseas, intended for use in green energy infrastructure. The parts could have been exploited to sabotage operations in the future. Compare the tactics and controls in place — quality checks, supplier audits, component verification — and assess whether your supply chain could be similarly vulnerable.
  • Insider Threat in Critical Infrastructure: A disgruntled employee at a water utility sabotaged Operational Technology at pumping stations so they would fail five days after he left the business. Compare the patterns and tactics used, as well as which controls worked or failed. Then use this to assess your own business: could this happen to you?

These examples demonstrate that threats are not isolated incidents but part of broader patterns that can be identified and mitigated through CCA.

Call to Action

If you’re a risk or compliance leader whose business is exposed to these sorts of threats, you need to ask whether your team is conducting Comparative Case Analysis as part of continuous improvement. Are you systematically comparing incidents to identify patterns? Are you using these insights to write typologies that inform your detection mechanisms? If not, it’s time to start.

Further Reading

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

The $25 Billion Question: How Much Are You Losing to Warranty Fraud?

Posted on by

Paul Curwell

6–8 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  • Warranty fraud is revenue leakage in disguise — costing manufacturers up to $25 billion a year and eating into reserves you thought were safe.
  • It’s not just customers gaming the system — insiders, dealers, and service providers are often behind the biggest schemes.
  • You can fight back — with the right contracts, transaction controls, analytics, and service network oversight, you can plug the leaks.

Introduction

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how medtech companies are bleeding millions to revenue leakage in their supply chains. Warranty fraud is another part of that same story — a silent killer of margins that rarely makes it to the executive risk register.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the best available global estimates of warranty fraud losses come from studies conducted between 2009 and 2015. That’s right, we’re still relying on decade-old numbers because the industry hasn’t invested in updating them. But the losses — then pegged at around 3% to 10% of total warranty expenses, or roughly $25 billion annually — haven’t magically gone away. If anything, the growth of digital service networks and globalised supply chains has probably made the problem worse.

Executives don’t need another abstract fraud risk to worry about. You need to know how this eats into your bottom line, distorts your financial planning, and ultimately undermines your ability to commercialise new technology. So let’s get practical.

MedTech Companies Are Losing Millions to Revenue Leakage Without Knowing It

The Cost of Warranty Fraud

Warranty fraud is not a rounding error — it’s a profit killer. Surveys by AGMA Global and PwC suggest that warranty and service abuse lead to 3% to 5% revenue losses for manufacturers.

  • In the U.S. alone, dealer and service provider fraud cost about $2.6 billion in 2018.
  • Automotive and electronics manufacturers typically spend 2.5% to 2.7% of product revenue on warranty claims. A chunk of that is pure fraud.
  • Some industries report warranty fraud accounting for up to 15% of total warranty costs.

That’s money straight out of your cash flow. And because fraudulent claims push warranty expenses beyond accrued reserves, the impact doesn’t just hurt margins — it hits your balance sheet, profitability, and valuation.

If you’re courting investors or pushing for commercialisation, warranty fraud doesn’t just look like sloppy operations. It looks like you don’t have control of your supply chain or insider threat risks.

man soldering a circuit board in an electronics warranty service centre
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

How Fraud Affects Manufacturer Warranty Claim Forecasts

Most manufacturers do their homework when it comes to warranty reserves. Forecasts are based on historical failure rates, reliability data, and statistical modelling. On average:

  • Companies set aside around 1.4% of product sales revenue to cover warranty claims.
  • Costs range anywhere from 0.5% to 5%, depending on industry and product complexity.
  • Automotive and electronics firms typically accrue closer to 2.5% of sales.

This would all work fine — if the claims data reflected reality. Fraud blows a hole in that logic. Fictitious or inflated claims distort the numbers, meaning your forecasts are wrong, your reserves are short, and your cash flow suffers.

For executives, that means warranty fraud is not just a line-item expense. It’s a forecasting and planning risk — the kind of risk that makes boards twitchy and investors cautious. So lets take a look at how it happens.

How Does Warranty Fraud Occur?

Here’s where it gets messy. Warranty fraud is not one type of scam, it’s a whole ecosystem. And unlike other types of fraud, the biggest offenders often sit inside your own supply chain or service networks.

A. Customer Fraud

  • False claims for non-existent failures.
  • Misuse or deliberate damage disguised as product defects.
  • Counterfeit receipts or altered purchase details.

Case Study A – Automotive OEM Dealer Fraud:
Dealers manipulated mileage reporting and double-charged customers and manufacturers for the same repairs. Fraudulent warranty claims stacked up until analytics flagged the anomalies.

B. Dealer and Service Agent Fraud (Insider Threats)

  • Charging both the customer and the manufacturer for the same repair (classic double-dipping).
  • Manipulating mileage or usage data to extend warranty coverage.
  • Repeatedly claiming for the same “repair” months later.

Case Study B – Computer Technology Provider:
One company estimated losing $100 million annually to warranty fraud by service providers. After implementing data-driven fraud detection, they uncovered $11 million in fraud in nine months and saved $67 million over five years.

C. EmployeeS (Insider Threats)

  • Approving false claims for friends, family, or colluding dealers.
  • Tampering with data to inflate invoices.
  • Steering warranty work to preferred suppliers for kickbacks.

Case Study C – Electronics Manufacturer in Australia:
Fined for misleading consumers about their warranty rights — proof that warranty issues don’t just hurt margins, they also create reputational and legal risk.

D. Warranty Provider and Administrator Fraud

  • Overselling coverage or denying valid claims.
  • Colluding with dealers or service providers to share the spoils.

Case Study D – Multi-national Manufacturer’s Pan-European Warranty Fraud Detection:
A multi-national manufacturer’s after-sales assessment revealed inconsistent warranty costs across countries attributable to service agent fraud. Fraud detection analytics quickly uncovered extensive abuse despite initial management skepticism, which was then extended to other regions like Asia, revealing similar fraudulent practices involving colluding employees and service agents.

As you can see from this warranty fraud taxonomy and these case studies, these aren’t edge cases. They’re mainstream manufacturers dealing with systemic fraud inside their own networks.

The Hidden Threat to Your Bottom Line: How Sales Fraud is Bleeding Your Business Dry

4. How Should Manufacturers Protect Their Revenue From Warranty Fraud?

The good news? You don’t have to accept warranty fraud as a cost of doing business. A comprehensive control framework works when it’s implemented with intent.

a. Contracts

Clear, standardised terms that define coverage and service entitlements. Include audit rights and anti-fraud clauses to keep dealers and providers honest.

B. Transaction Controls

Validate customer entitlement and claim legitimacy every time. Automate material returns control. Layer in analytical scoring so high-risk claims get flagged early.

C. Analytics

This is where the magic happens. Combine business rules, anomaly detection, predictive models, and even social network analysis to spot patterns of collusion. Fraudsters aren’t random — their footprints are there if you look.

D. Service Network Management

Benchmark your dealers, agents, and providers. Use performance dashboards, mystery shopping, and audits to keep them accountable. Service networks are fertile ground for fraud — manage them like the strategic assets (and risks) they are.

red stop sign highlighting that it is possible to prevent and detect revenue leakage through warranty fraud and abuse.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Conclusion: Stop the Silent Margin Killer

Warranty fraud is more than an operational headache — it’s a direct attack on your revenue, your forecasts, and ultimately your valuation. If you wouldn’t tolerate a 5% revenue leak from your supply chain, why are you tolerating it from warranty fraud?

As executives in manufacturing and medtech, you have two choices:

  1. Treat warranty fraud as an unavoidable cost and keep bleeding margins.
  2. Or treat it as a strategic risk — implement controls, demand analytics, and take back control of your revenue.

Personally, I know which choice makes your next board meeting easier.

Further Reading

  1. Curwell, P. (2025). MedTech Companies Are Losing Millions to Revenue Leakage Without Knowing It
  2. Curwell, P. (2025). The Hidden Threat to Your Bottom Line: How Sales Fraud is Bleeding Your Business Dry
  3. Kurvinen, M., Toyryla, I., Prabhakar Murthy, D.N. (2016). Warranty Fraud Management: Reducing fraud and other excess costs in Warranty and Service Operations, Wiley.
  4. The real cost of warranty fraud and how to detect it – Intellinet Systems
  5. Warranty Week archive – industry analysis
  6. LG to pay $160,000 for misleading warranty representations – ACCC
  7. Reducing service provider and warranty fraud – Elder Research case study
  8. Syncron: 5 key warranty metrics every warranty manager should know
  9. CompTIA White Paper – Warranty Abuse
  10. Warranty fraud analytics techniques – INSIA

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

Ransomware Attacks on R&D Companies Explained

Posted on by

Paul Curwell

5–8 minutes

3 Key Takeaways:

  1. Ransomware has professionalised: today’s gangs follow an 8-step targeting cycle that looks more like a military operation than a cybercrime.
  2. R&D-intensive companies are prime targets because weak data governance creates exploitable security gaps — and attackers know your research is the fastest route to a big payday.
  3. The financial impact goes far beyond ransom payments — share prices fall, investors back away, and patents can be undermined.

The impact on your business

Ransomware is the digital version of kidnapping. Attackers break into your systems, lock up your data, and demand payment for its release. But unlike old-school kidnappers, they don’t just keep the hostage — they copy it too. For R&D-heavy companies, that hostage is your research pipeline: your trade secrets, trial data, and commercialisation plans.

And here’s the part too many boards miss: the ransom is only the start of the damage.

  • Share price impact: Public disclosures of ransomware routinely knock 3–5% off market cap. One company’s 2023 breach wiped millions in value overnight.
  • Investor attraction: If you can’t prove your research data is safe, investors won’t touch you. Due diligence now treats ransomware resilience like another line in your balance sheet.
  • Time-to-market delays: Every month of R&D delay costs millions in burn and kills first-mover advantage. In pharma, a six-month delay can add $3–6M to costs.
  • Commercialisation risk: Stolen formulas and trial data can create “prior art” that undermines your patents. Translation: your billion-dollar IP is now legally copyable.

Ransomware isn’t just an IT outage — it’s a strategic risk to valuation, market entry, and investor confidence.

49% of Private Equity deals fail because of undisclosed data breaches

Why R&D-intensive companies are vulnerable

Think of your R&D program as a fragile supply chain. Every stage — discovery, trials, data integrity, and commercialisation — depends on governance and control. When ransomware strikes, the weak links show.

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: in R&D intensive businesses, many ransomware vulnerabilities come not from exotic zero-day cyber exploits but from poor data governance, which flows through to your information security posture. Data governance is not a “tech” term — it’s a board-level responsibility. When governance fails, attackers thrive:

  • Unclear ownership and access: If no one owns the data, no one protects it. Attackers love overexposed research folders and outdated VPN access.
  • Failed backups: Governance blind spots mean backups aren’t tested — so the first time you discover they don’t work is during an attack.
  • Misapplied controls: Without proper data classification, security teams guard low-value data while leaving crown jewels exposed.
  • Regulatory exposure: Weak governance makes GDPR, HIPAA, or ISO non-compliance almost inevitable — and regulators don’t accept “we were hacked” as an excuse.
  • Slow detection: Without adequate security monitoring, attackers can sit inside your network for weeks undetected, rehearsing their attack.

Poor governance contributes to a perfect operating environment for ransomware groups. And in R&D-heavy sectors, that means your valuation is basically gift-wrapped for attackers.

governance is key to protecting your data, data integrity, and implementing fit for purpose security protocols to guard against ransomware.

The professionalisation of ransomware in 2025: the 8-step targeting cycle

Forget the old “spray and pray” model where attackers blasted out phishing emails and hoped someone clicked. That was cybercrime’s stone age, and focused on everyone and everything rather than being highly sophisticated, targeted, and selective.

Today’s ransomware gangs are professionals. They behave like organised crime syndicates, following a structured 8-step targeting cycle designed to maximise pressure and payouts:

  1. Target Selection – Industries where data equals enterprise value, such as pharma, biotech, semiconductors, medtech, and advanced manufacturing.
  2. Initial Surveillance – Public sources, leaked credentials, and open servers help attackers map your weak spots.
  3. Final Target Selection – They zoom in on firms with high-value IP, fragile governance, and patchy defences.
  4. Pre-attack Surveillance – Once inside, they quietly watch. Mapping networks, spotting backup systems, and studying user behaviours.
  5. Planning – With insider-level intel, attackers script their playbook for maximum damage and leverage.
  6. Rehearsal – Yes, they practice. In test environments, they run through encryption and data theft to ensure nothing goes wrong on game day.
  7. Execution – Systems are locked, IP is exfiltrated, ransom notes drop. Victims are blindsided; attackers are already two steps ahead.
  8. Escape & Evasion – Logs are wiped, trails covered, backdoors left behind for future profit.
Paul Curwell's 8-step targeting cycle for organised crime

This is not opportunistic crime conducted by pimply teenagers. It’s deliberate, researched, and ruthlessly commercial — closer to an IPO roadshow than a smash-and-grab.

Case studies: when ransomware hit the labs

Perhaps your one of the many people I talk to at industry events who’s sick of hearing about security. Well, if you need further convincing on the importance of this topic here are 5 real-world examples that show how professionalised ransomware plays out:

CompanyAttacker GroupSuccess FactorsBusiness ImpactIP/Patent Risk
Company A (India, 2023)ALPHV / BlackCatCompromised VPNs & stolen credentials, extensive pre-attack surveillance.17TB of data stolen, 3–5% share price drop, $50–62M revenue hit, $3M+ recovery costs.Risk of patent invalidation if leaked as prior art.
Company B (Japan, 2023)Unnamed (likely RaaS affiliate)Supply chain intrusion, privileged access exploitation.Multi-week disruption of R&D and manufacturing, investor concern.Possible exposure of neuroscience research.
Company C (India, 2020)Unnamed criminal ransomware groupPhishing & credential theft during COVID-19 trials.4% share price drop, 2-week trial delays, $150k–$250k added burn per project.Trial data exposure undermines exclusivity.
Company D (Germany, 2023)Unnamed RaaS affiliates with APT linksExploited enterprise / cloud vulnerabilities, targeted R&D repositories.Attack contained quickly, limiting share price impact.Potential R&D data exposure, though managed.
Company E (UK, 2024/25)QilinVPN / firewall exploits (CVE-2024-21762), targeted NHS-critical systems.£32.7M loss (~$41M), weeks of disruption, ransom ~$50M.Diagnostic IP exposed, R&D collaborations disrupted.
The costs of an IP breach

Conclusion: the strategic picture

The uncomfortable truth: ransomware groups have professionalised faster than most boardrooms have adapted. They’re running playbooks that look like government intelligence operations, and they’re aiming squarely at industries where research is the business to make sure you’re highly incentivised to pay up.

If you’re in an R&D-intensive sector, you’re not just another target — you’re the main course. Weak governance, patchy security, and misplaced confidence in cyber insurance won’t save you.

So, next time someone in the boardroom calls ransomware an “IT problem,” remind them it’s actually a governance problem. Because in 2025, the attackers aren’t amateurs anymore — and if your business wants to survive your response can’t be either.

Further Reading

  1. Curwell, P. (2023). The Costs of an IP Breach
  2. Curwell, P. (2024). 49% of Private Equity deals fail because of undisclosed data breaches
  3. Curwell, P. (2024). Cybercriminals Steal $5 Trillion Every Year from businesses like yours – and how you can stop them! LinkedIn
  4. Europol (2024). Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment IOCTA 2024.pdf
  5. Resultant – How Ransomware and Data Governance Are Connected (2024)
  6. WJARR – Data Governance and Cybersecurity Resilience (2024)
  7. OneTrust – 3 Steps for Mitigating the Impact of Ransomware Attacks Through Data Discovery (2023)
  8. Atlan – Data Governance vs. Data Security: Why Both Matter (2023)
  9. LinkedIn (Mark Shell) – Data Governance: The Final Frontier for Ransomware Protection (2024)
  10. BlueZoo – Safeguarding Sensitive Information Through Governance and Security (2024)
  11. Bitsight – Security Ratings and Ransomware Correlation (2023)
  12. Varonis – Ransomware Statistics You Need to Know (2025)
  13. ACIG Journal – Ransomware: Why It’s Growing and How to Curb It (2024)

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

MedTech Companies Are Losing Millions to Revenue Leakage Without Knowing It

Posted on by

Paul Curwell

6–8 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  1. MedTech companies lose 5-7% of gross revenue to fraud, supply chain leakage, and contract failures—most executives don’t even know it’s happening
  2. Your supply chain integrity is under attack from unauthorised discounting, billing fraud, and channel partners who bend the rules
  3. Revenue protection isn’t a back-office problem—it’s a strategic risk that directly impacts your bottom line and company valuation

You’re Bleeding Money and Don’t Even Know It

Here’s a sobering thought: while you’re obsessing over R&D budgets and production efficiency, your company is probably hemorrhaging 5-7% of gross revenue through fraud and supply chain leakage. That’s not a typo—it’s reality.

I discovered this harsh truth during recent work in the MedTech sector. Frankly, I was shocked. Through discussions with colleagues and clients about these estimates, I realised many executives either don’t recognise this problem or dramatically underestimate its impact.

Consider this: if your company generates $100 million annually, you’re potentially losing $5-7 million to preventable leakage.

That’s serious money—money that should be flowing straight to your bottom line instead of disappearing into the supply chain black hole.

The Billion-Dollar Problem Nobody Talks About

Revenue leakage in healthcare equipment and medical device manufacturing isn’t some theoretical concern. Industry data shows pharmaceutical companies collectively lose over $15 billion annually from rebate abuse and chargeback errors alone. Medical device companies face identical risks with even less protection.

The gross-to-net gap—the difference between what you bill and what you actually receive—reached $236 billion across healthcare in 2021. While pharma companies were forced by regulation to build revenue controls, medical device and diagnostic equipment manufacturers are still catching up, despite facing identical complexity.

Here’s why this matters to your bottom line: unlike other business costs, revenue leakage is almost entirely preventable. Every dollar you recover from leakage flows directly to profit. No additional manufacturing costs, no new R&D investment—pure margin improvement.

Where Your Money Disappears: The Top Leakage Points

Revenue vanishes at multiple stages throughout your operation. Understanding these vulnerabilities helps you plug the holes:

Manufacturing & Procurement Losses

  • Quality failures: Rejects and recalls from substandard components can trigger millions in losses
  • Supply chain fraud: Counterfeit parts compromise your supply chain integrity while creating warranty claims
  • Contract mismanagement: Poor supplier agreements allow pricing discrepancies to compound over time

Just last week, I heard a podcast about MedTech product packaging for air transport. The extreme temperature swings in aircraft cargo holds—from scorching tarmacs to sub-zero altitudes—can destroy highly calibrated diagnostic equipment. These “invisible” logistics failures create expensive writeoffs that directly impact revenue.

Channel stuffing fraud – a distribution problem

Distribution & Channel Partner Issues

  • Unauthorised discounting: Partners who exceed agreed discount limits without approval
  • Product diversion: Legitimate products sold outside authorised territories or channels
  • Contract violations: Distributors who bend pricing rules or ignore territorial restrictions
  • Billing errors: Complex pricing structures create opportunities for mistakes that favor customers
Product Diversion in the Healthcare Supply Chain: What’s the Problem and How Big Is It?

Sales & Service Revenue Gaps

The complexity of healthcare equipment pricing creates multiple leakage points:

Revenue StreamCommon Leakage Points
Equipment SalesUnauthorised discounts, pricing errors
Service ContractsUnderpriced renewals, forgotten billing
Software LicensesUnauthorised usage, poor compliance tracking
Diagnostic ConsumablesVolume discrepancies, rebate abuse
Training ServicesUnbilled hours, contract scope creep
The Hidden Threat to Your Bottom Line: How Sales Fraud is Bleeding Your Business Dry

MedTech is More Vulnerable Than Pharmaceuticals

Through my recent work, I’ve seen how medical device and diagnostic equipment companies face unique structural challenges that make revenue leakage worse:

Business Model Complexity: While pharma sells discrete products through standardised channels, MedTechs manage intricate bundles. A single “sale” might include equipment leasing, maintenance contracts, software licenses, training services, and ongoing consumables—each with different pricing structures and discount schedules.

Fragmented Distribution: MedTechs rely on more diverse partner networks than pharma companies. Specialised dealers, regional distributors, service providers, and system integrators all have custom contract terms and varying compliance capabilities.

Legacy Revenue Controls: The MedTech and diagnostic equipment sector has been slower to implement systematic revenue controls. While pharma companies invested heavily in rebate management and contract compliance systems under regulatory pressure, many healthcare equipment manufacturers still operate with outdated processes.

This complexity creates opportunities for revenue to slip through cracks that pharma companies sealed years ago.

Building Your Revenue Defense System

Protecting revenue requires systematic action across multiple areas. Here’s what works:

1. Implement Real-Time Monitoring

  • Install automated systems that flag unusual discount patterns
  • Set up alerts for pricing exceptions that exceed thresholds
  • Monitor partner sales data for territorial violations or volume discrepancies
  • Track service contract renewals to prevent revenue gaps

2. Strengthen Contract Controls

  • Automate discount approvals with clear escalation paths
  • Build dynamic pricing systems that adjust for market changes
  • Create partner scorecards that track compliance metrics
  • Implement regular contract audits beyond just financial reviews

3. Enhance Supply Chain Integrity

  • Deploy serialisation and track-and-trace technologies
  • Validate partner credentials and monitor their performance
  • Create digital twins that link physical inventory to service claims
  • Establish rapid response protocols for integrity breaches

4. Data-Driven Partnership Management

  • Cross-reference sales transactions, service logs, and rebate submissions
  • Use analytics to identify patterns that indicate fraud or process failures
  • Reward partners for validated outcomes, not just volume metrics
  • Conduct operational audits that assess pricing integrity and territorial compliance
Product Serialisation – a tool to help counter diversion and illicit trade

The Board-Level Questions You Need to Ask

Revenue protection belongs on your executive agenda. Start asking these questions:

  1. What’s our independently verified leakage rate?
  2. Can we trace our products through their entire lifecycle?
  3. Do we have complete visibility over channel partner behavior?
  4. Who specifically owns revenue protection accountability?
  5. Are we prepared for regulatory scrutiny on supply chain integrity?

If you can’t answer these questions clearly, that’s where your risk lives.

Your Next Steps: Stop the Bleeding

Revenue leakage is fixable. Companies that address it proactively enjoy stronger margins, reduced risk exposure, and better competitive positioning.

Start with these immediate actions:

Week 1: Audit your last quarter’s discount exceptions and pricing variances. Calculate the financial impact of irregular patterns.

Month 1: Implement automated alerts for pricing exceptions that exceed your predetermined thresholds. Review partner compliance with territorial and discount agreements.

Quarter 1: Deploy analytics tools that cross-reference sales data, service logs, and rebate submissions to identify anomalies.

Year 1: Build comprehensive revenue protection systems with real-time monitoring, automated controls, and regular partner audits.

The companies moving first will capture disproportionate advantages while competitors struggle with eroded margins. In an industry where innovation drives growth but operational excellence determines profitability, revenue protection has become a competitive necessity.

Your money is disappearing right now. The question is: what are you going to do about it?

Ready to plug the revenue leaks in your organisation? Start by conducting a comprehensive revenue audit to identify your biggest vulnerability areas. The sooner you act, the sooner you’ll see those lost millions flowing back to your bottom line.

Further Reading:

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

Why Your Brightest Minds Are Clicking on Deepfakes: The Hidden Business Cost of Phishing in Science & Tech SMBs

Posted on by

Paul Curwell

7–10 minutes

Key Points

  1. Phishing is smarter now—AI-generated, multi-channel, phishing and social engineering schemes are targeting your most trusted staff.
  2. If you don’t own your cloud security, someone else will—probably a criminal.
  3. Breach costs in biotech, medtech, and high-tech are among the fastest-growing, averaging $4.9M.

“We Thought We Were Too Small to Be Targeted”

If I had a dollar for every science or tech founder who told me their company was “too small to be on anyone’s radar,” I’d have my own R&D fund.

Let me be clear: attackers don’t care about your size—they care about your value. IYou’re holding proprietary data, research, or trade secrets, so you’re a target. Most science and technology businesses rely on cloud services and don’t have a full-time security team, making you vulnerable.

The methods used to breach billion-dollar multinationals are now faster, cheaper, and powered by AI. This article outlines the threat and provide tips on how to stop your business from being compromised with one fake Slack message, QR code, or deepfake video call.

The Phishing Shift: Multi-Channel, Deepfake, and Voice Fraud Are the New Norm

Phishing has evolved. It’s no longer about shady emails from fake banks. Today’s attacks are:

  • AI-enhanced: Customised lures generated instantly using your public data.
  • Multi-channel: 41% of phishing attacks now include SMS, WhatsApp, Teams, Slack, or LinkedIn, not just email. [[Verizon DBIR 2025]]
  • Visual and audio deepfakes: CEO voice clones. Fake investor video calls. Deepfake “compliance officers” asking for document uploads.
  • QR code phishing (quishing): Seen a QR code on a conference booth or flyer? It could trigger malware or credential theft. These attacks have jumped 2,000% since 2023. [Proofpoint]

This means your smartest, most senior, and most trusted employees—research leads, engineers, finance managers—are now your most likely targets.

And when they click? The attackers don’t just steal credentials—they steal access to your intellectual property, your commercialisation roadmap, your partner data.

Business Email Compromise – persistent threat or consistently mismanaged?

What’s Really at Risk? IP, Trust, and your Entire Business Model

According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report (2024), the average breach in the biotech and medical devices sectors now costs $4.9M, driven by:

  • Lost IP and R&D delays
  • Regulatory investigation
  • Supply chain fallout
  • Loss of investor confidence

And let’s be blunt: in your world, IP is the value. If that gets leaked, copied, or ransomed, your growth narrative evaporates. Here’s how the damage cascades across your business:

FunctionImpact
StrategyStolen trade secrets = lost first-mover advantage
InvestmentInvestors now screen for cloud security and IP protection readiness
FinanceCosts spike with downtime, legal, incident response, and insurance gaps
OperationsPhishing often leads to ransomware disrupting production or trials
MarketingA leak of your roadmap = blown launch, brand damage, loss of trust
AI for Deeptech Startups: Balancing Speed and Security

Real Example: The Deepfake COO That Killed a Fundraise

A medtech startup was gearing up for their Series B. One of their engineers received a message on Slack from “their COO” requesting trial data to be uploaded to a new shared folder for investor review. It was convincing—same profile picture, same tone, same urgency.

Except it wasn’t their COO.

The link was spoofed. The data was stolen. Within weeks, unpublished clinical research appeared online. The raise was postponed. A competitor filed a patent within six months.

This was not a technical failure—it was a business failure rooted in poor security awareness and access control.

The Cloud Trap: “We Use Microsoft/AWS, So We’re Covered” (No, You’re Not)

There’s a dangerous myth in science and tech startups:

“We’re on Azure or AWS, so we’re secure.”

Wrong.

Cloud providers like Microsoft and Amazon only protect the infrastructure. Everything else—your apps, identities, access controls, data classification, and monitoring—is your responsibility.

Who Secures What in the Cloud?

You SecureProvider Secures
IP, data, applicationsPhysical data centres
User identities, MFAInfrastructure uptime
SaaS app permissionsNetwork hardware
Monitoring & alertsHypervisor patching
Segmentation, backupsBase platform security

Cloud platforms call this the Shared Responsibility Model, and it’s not optional. If you’re not configuring and monitoring your cloud assets regularly, you’re driving blind.

Security Awareness Training: The Key to Protecting Life Sciences from IP Threats

So What Do You Actually Do? Here’s a Business-Ready Plan

You don’t need a CISO or a 10-person security team. But you do need a plan that works for a cloud-first, IP-heavy business. Here’s mine.

1. Use the Cloud Security Tools You Already Own

You’re probably already paying for enterprise-grade security features. Turn them on.

On Microsoft Azure:

  • Defender for Cloud: Detect misconfigurations, malware, and risky settings.
  • Sentinel: Security analytics and threat detection.
  • DLP & Microsoft Purview: Prevent IP and research leaks across Teams, SharePoint, and email.
  • Defender for Cloud Apps: Track SaaS sprawl and OAuth risks.

On AWS:

  • GuardDuty: Real-time threat detection and alerts.
  • Security Hub: Centralised risk view across AWS services.
  • IAM + KMS: Fine-grained access control and encryption key management.
  • Connected App Reviews: Audit OAuth and API app integrations.

Set alerts. Monitor changes. Review configurations monthly.

2. Lock Down Identity, Access, and Data

  • MFA Everywhere: No exceptions, no delays.
  • Least Privilege: Don’t give admin rights unless absolutely necessary.
  • Credential Hygiene: Rotate secrets; store them in Key Vault (Azure) or Secrets Manager (AWS).
  • Segment R&D Environments: Separate IP-heavy workloads from finance, HR, and business ops.
  • Encrypt Everything: In transit and at rest. Use customer-managed keys for sensitive data.

3. Train for the Threats of 2025

Phishing isn’t just email anymore. Your staff need to be trained for:

  • Quishing: Fake QR codes that install malware or lead to credential harvesters.
  • Vishing: Calls from deepfaked executives or suppliers.
  • Fake video calls: Deepfakes of board members or partners requesting documents.
  • Business email compromise: Fake invoices, altered payment instructions.

Simulate these scenarios monthly. Keep it realistic. And build a no-blame reporting culture—you want incidents surfaced fast.

4. Prepare for the Breach—Because It Will Happen

  • Automate Cross-Region Backups: Especially for research data and regulatory submissions.
  • Test Disaster Recovery Quarterly: Restoring is not plug-and-play. Practice like it’s game day.
  • Keep R&D Snapshots Offline: Isolated storage can prevent ransomware spread and data loss.

Your IP is irreplaceable. Treat it like crown jewels, not just another folder.

5. Audit Your SaaS and Supply Chain Access

Third-party apps and vendors are often your weakest link.

  • Review OAuth and app permissions quarterly
  • On Azure, use Defender for Cloud Apps to flag unused or risky apps.
  • On AWS, use the Connected App list to track what’s talking to your data.
  • Add security clauses into vendor contracts: include breach notifications, minimum controls, and audit rights.

And always ask: Do they need access to that data? If not, revoke it.

6. Give the C-Suite Metrics That Matter

Executives focus on risk, cost, and reputation. Produce a monthly cloud security dashboard to track business-relevant metrics and identify where you need to improve:

  • % of staff with MFA enabled
  • DLP events involving research/IP
  • Number of connected third-party apps
  • Training completion rates
  • Number of critical misconfigurations or policy violations

Tie these to business outcomes: funding readiness, compliance status, and operational continuity.

Biotech and MedTech Investors Are Demanding Security and Resilience: Are You Ready?

Final Thoughts: Security Is Commercialisation

If you’re in science and tech, your ability to protect your research and data is part of your business model.

This isn’t paranoia, it’s about staying competitive. You are competitive when you secure your IP, prove control over your cloud environment, and train your team to spot social engineering, you don’t just reduce risk—you build credibility with investors, partners, and customers.

So let’s recap. Here are 6 actions you can take now to avoid becoming a victim of the next phishing or social engineering scheme:

  • Enable MFA on every account—human and machine.
  • Audit your Azure or AWS environment with Security Hub or Defender.
  • Run a phishing simulation that includes voice, SMS, and video threats.
  • Review all third-party apps and OAuth permissions.
  • Test your disaster recovery plan.
  • Start tracking metrics for the boardroom.

If you need help setting this up—or just want a quick review—I’ve worked with enough S&T startups and growth-stage firms to know what’s worth your time.

You don’t need to be unbreakable. You just need to be prepared.

And in a world of AI-enhanced fraud, that’s your real competitive edge.

Further Reading

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.

Biotech and MedTech Investors Are Demanding Security and Resilience: Are You Ready?

Posted on by

Paul Curwell

7–10 minutes

3 Key Takeaways

  1. Your IP is your goldmine – For most biotech and medtech companies, intellectual property (IP) is the primary asset—often making up most of the enterprise value. Competitors, cybercriminals, and nation-state actors are targeting these assets, even in early stages.
  2. The “security later” myth is costing you deals – Investors are increasingly seeing weak security as a deal-breaker during due diligence. Regulatory failures can cost millions to remediate.
  3. Resilience now rivals innovation – Investors increasingly allocate capital to companies that can demonstrate not just breakthrough science, but also the security, integrity, and resilience to protect it.

Security Is a Business Decision—Not a Technical One

Security decisions often get framed as technical, complex, or something to worry about later. That mindset is dangerous—especially in life sciences, where what you don’t protect can cost you your next round, your IP rights, or your company’s future.

In reality, early-stage biotechs and medtechs face three unavoidable truths:

  1. Your intellectual property is the business — and likely the only real asset you own.
  2. You’re already a target — from competitors, cybercriminals, and even foreign intelligence services.
  3. Investors are watching — and asking questions you must be ready to answer.

The risk environment has shifted. Today’s adversaries aren’t just hackers in basements. They include:

  • Ransomware gangs targeting IP-rich companies for extortion
  • Foreign actors stealing trade secrets to boost their own biotech industries through espionage and foreign interference
  • Contract partners and employees who, as insider risks, might mishandle, steal, or deliberately leak sensitive information

You may not stop every threat—but you can become a harder target. And that makes you a safer bet for investors.

Security Creates Value—and Investors Know It

Here’s what most founders miss: Security doesn’t just protect value. It creates it.

Early-stage companies that build in basic controls gain:

  • Faster fundraising – Clear controls speed due diligence.
  • Smoother partnerships – Big pharma won’t risk IP leaks from weak links.
  • Fewer regulatory delays – Secure-by-design systems reduce audit findings.

It’s not about locking everything down—it’s about stage-appropriate controls that prove you can grow responsibly.

Surveys show over 70% of life science investors now flag data integrity and IP protection as top decision factors. That’s because the risk is real: trade secret theft costs the global economy more than $1 trillion annually, and life sciences firms are prime targets.

Nation-state actors, insider risks, and ransomware gangs are no longer fringe concerns—they’re active threats. This isn’t hypothetical. It’s a competitive filter—and investors are paying attention.

The 3 SMB Risk Management frameworks you need to protect your business

When IP Protection Becomes a Business Valuation Driver

From my experience helping companies navigate security challenges, there are four critical stages where security transforms from “nice to have” to “deal or no deal.”

A. Discovery Stage:

Many founders assume they’re “too early” for security. In reality, premature public disclosure or leaks can destroy patent eligibility and future value.

Case Study: A European gene therapy startup lost patent protection after a postdoc shared results at a conference before filing. The resulting “prior art” invalidated their core IP, forcing an 18-month delay and a complete pivot.

Whilst many medtechs and biotechs fail at this conceptual hurdle, they still have valuable information and data assets with some residual value. A resonable investor might ask “How do you prevent premature disclosure of trade secrets? What’s your invention disclosure process?”

5 Tips to manage information security risks during discovery:

  • Enable conditional access controls and sensitivity labels for IP documents using existing tools.
  • Implement NDAs for everyone, including advisors and part-time collaborators.
  • Create invention disclosure workflows to track who invented what, when.
  • Run brief security inductions focused on IP protection basics.
  • Most early-stage companies already pay for Microsoft 365 tools like Purview through their E5 subscription (or AWS, Google equivalents). These tools are designed to manage these risks, but they’re never turned on!
Microsoft Purview Information Protection – an overview

B. Prototyping Phase:

Outsourcing and collaboration introduce new risks. Without strong IP protection clauses and access controls, your designs and data can walk out the door. Here are two examples:

Case Study 1: A Boston medtech company discovered a manufacturer had shared CAD files with competitors. Weak contracts and lack of controls cost them millions in lost advantage.

Case Study 2: A European medtech startup outsourced prototyping to an overseas partner. Within months, a similar device appeared in local patent filings. Weak contracts and open file sharing enabled the leak. Surveys indicate that over half of life science firms have experienced IP leakage during collaboration or outsourcing.

If your business is at this stage in the lifecycle, I think its perfectly reasonable that a potential investor might ask: “What IP protection clauses are in your supply chain contracts? How do you audit third-party access to sensitive data?”.

Tips to manage risks in outsourcing and prototyping

Here’s five simple actions you can do to manage your prototyping risk:

  • Upgrade vendor contracts with IP protection, confidentiality, and audit clauses.
  • Implement data loss prevention policies to prevent sensitive IP sharing via email or chat.
  • Use secure collaboration portals with controlled access.
  • Conduct regular access reviews for sensitive information.
  • Use a secure, timestamped invention disclosure log—this can be as simple as storing cryptographic hashes of documents with trusted timestamps to prove originality and timing.
Protecting Your R&D When Outsourcing Rapid Prototyping

C. Clinical Validation:

Data integrity and regulatory compliance become paramount. According to FDA enforcement summaries, a significant portion of warning letters cite documentation and data integrity deficiencies.

Case Study: One oncology trial faced a clinical hold after inspectors found inadequate data controls, costing $1.8 million in remediation and a 14-month delay.

As life science companies progress to clinical validation, regulatory scrutiny really steps up. Investors start asking tough questions like “Do you have FDA compliant data management systems? Can you demonstrate audit trail capabilities for trial data?”.

If you can’t satisfy a regulator, your commercialisation timeline might be set back by one to two years, and your additional cash burn could send you under.

Don’t wait until the last minute to factor in security – there’s a reason why the FDA and TGA adopted ‘secure by design’ principles.

Tips to manage security and integrity risks at the Clinical Stage:

  • Encrypt all clinical trial data using built-in cloud platform features.
  • Develop data integrity SOPs aligned with regulatory expectations.
  • Assess CRO security practices before signing contracts.
  • Prepare incident response plans for data breaches or integrity issues.

D. Scaling Phase:

At this stage, due diligence intensifies. Investors want proof you can scale—securely, not just scientifically.”

That means showing your approach to information security, data integrity, and resilience to recover from disruption or compromise is well thought out and consistently applied.

Case Study: A US-based biotech lost millions in valuation after a researcher emailed unpublished gene-editing data to a competitor before patent filings. The company lacked basic NDAs and data loss prevention controls. Industry studies suggest that premature disclosure or insider risks resulting in inadvertant publication are a leading cause of patent novelty disputes.

Potential investor questions:

  • “How do you manage privileged access to trade secrets and sensitive clinical data?”
  • “What happens if someone in your supply chain is compromised?”
  • “Can you detect and respond to insider threats before they damage your valuation?”

Scaling Stage Actions:

  • Formalize your security program with written policies and governance.
  • Implement privileged access management for sensitive IP and trial data.
  • Establish vendor risk assessment processes.
  • Provide regular employee security awareness training.
Actions Life Science SMBs Can Take to Reduce The High Cost of Licensing Fraud

What Investors Now Ask (And What You Need to Answer)

Today’s investors aren’t just evaluating your science—they’re evaluating your ability to protect it. Here’s what they want to know:

  • Are your information security controls appropriate for your risks?
  • Can you demonstrate good data integrity?
  • How do you protect global operations? What controls are in place for international CROs and suppliers?
  • Are you compliant with export controls?
  • How do you manage insider risk?
  • How do you protect your data and IP with contract manufacturers and research partners?
49% of Private Equity deals fail because of undisclosed data breaches

The Bottom Line: Security as a Strategic Advantage

In 2025, security isn’t just about prevention—it’s about acceleration. When you can show your IP is protected, your data integrity is sound, and your partners are secure, you’re demonstrating the kind of operational maturity that makes you investable.

Companies that invest in security early don’t just avoid disasters—they grow faster:

  • Faster fundraising: Mature security speeds up due diligence.
  • Higher valuations: Strong IP protection earns investor premiums.
  • Partnership acceleration: Pharma and CROs want secure collaborators.
  • Regulatory efficiency: Better data integrity, fewer delays.
  • Competitive edge: While others scramble to patch gaps, you’re moving forward.

In a world where cybercriminals, competitors, and foreign governments all want your IP, the question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in security—it’s whether you can afford not to.

References:

  • Deloitte, “2024 Global Life Sciences Outlook”
  • PwC, “Biotech and Pharma Investor Survey 2023”
  • FDA Warning Letters Database
  • World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Reports
  • Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “Annual Threat Assessment 2024”
  • Ponemon Institute, “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024”
  • Various industry case studies and market analyses

DISCLAIMER: All information presented on PaulCurwell.com is intended for general information purposes only. The content of PaulCurwell.com should not be considered legal or any other form of advice or opinion on any specific facts or circumstances. Readers should consult their own advisers experts or lawyers on any specific questions they may have. Any reliance placed upon PaulCurwell.com is strictly at the reader’s own risk. The views expressed by the authors are entirely their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, their respective employers. Refer here for full disclaimer.