Rubrik protects vital coronavirus research against increasing cyberattack threat

Recent research from the National Cyber Security Centre highlights the rise in nation-state sponsored attempts to steal coronavirus research from UK universities and research institutes. Researchers at the Crick are engaged in not only providing testing facilities for NHS front-line staff, but also pursuing multiple research avenues in better understanding the disease.

With Rubrik, the Crick now has increased visibility over its data, reducing sensitive data exposure providing an extra layer of protection against the increased risks presented by the current cybersecurity landscape.

“We partnered with Rubrik about eighteen months ago to modernise our data backup and recovery and support our migration to multi-cloud,” said James Fleming, Director of ITS at the Crick. “Since then, we’ve used Rubrik’s more sophisticated capabilities to also transform how we assure and govern our sensitive data. This gives us considerable confidence when responding to the IT challenges presented by COVID-19.” 

Dedicated to understanding the biology of human health and disease, the 1500 researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have adapted their usual work researching cancer, heart disease, strokes, infections and neurodegenerative disease to lend their expertise to the fight against coronavirus. Researchers are now probing how the disease came about, studying how it is spread and developing new types of tests, as well as providing state of the art testing services to staff and patients in the NHS. 

“In addition to the increase in sophisticated phishing attempts during the coronavirus outbreak, we have also been contending with a rise in the amount of sensitive information we handle, as we have been testing both NHS front-line workers, and our own staff for the virus,” explained Fleming. “With Rubrik, not only do we have that reassurance that our data is protected with immutable backup, but we can also have visibility over our data. We run multiple workloads over a hybrid environment, so without Rubrik leveraging our metadata, it would be impossible for us to understand our data, and ensure security.”

Martin Brown, VP for EMEA at Rubrik said: “It’s an honour to be able to support the Francis Crick Institute in its vital work, not just during the coronavirus outbreak, but in all areas of its groundbreaking research. Our solution is enabling them to take on more, and bigger projects, not only simplifying the task of the IT team, but enabling researchers to do more with the data they are generating