Project LAZARUS: Clinical Data Rescue

MISSION REPORT: OPERATION LAZARUS

Target Entity: Contract Research Organization (CRO)
Asset Class: Phase III Clinical Trial Data (Neurology)
Threat Vector: Data Integrity Sabotage (Killware)

The Strategic Context

Ransomware has evolved. Attackers know that Pharma companies have backups. So, instead of just encrypting data, they now threaten "Integrity Destruction."

Our client received a note: "We have modified 50 random values in your patient database. Pay 5M USD or we release the proof, and the FDA will reject your study." For a drug in Phase III, data integrity is everything. A shadow of doubt renders 500M EUR of research worthless.

The Intervention: Forensic Validation

Intarmour treated this as a crime scene. The goal was not just recovery, but Defensibility.

Phase 1: The Sovereign Restore The client was using Intarmour's "Sovereign VDR" for off-site backups. These backups are Immutable (Write-Once-Read-Many). The attackers could not touch them. We restored the database from the snapshot taken 1 hour before the breach.

Phase 2: The Hash Comparison To prove to the FDA and the Board that the data was clean, we ran a cryptographic hash comparison between the restored data and the raw data logs from the medical devices. The match was perfect.

Phase 3: The Regulator Report We authored a technical forensic report for the FDA auditors, detailing the Chain of Custody of the data. We demonstrated that the "Production" environment was compromised, but the "Data Record" remained pristine.

The Operational Outcome

• Trial Saved: The FDA accepted the forensic report. The trial continued without restarting, saving the client an estimated 2 years and 80M EUR.
• Bluff Called: We proved the attackers were lying about the modification to force payment.
• Resilience: The client now uses blockchain-anchored logging for all patient entries.

Strategic Lesson: In Pharma, protecting the file is not enough. You must protect the truth.