56 If our information technology systems, or those of third parties with whom we work, or our data, are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences resulting from such compromise, including but not limited to regulatory investigations or actions, significant fines or other liability, interruptions of our development programs, harm to our reputation, and other adverse consequences. In the ordinary course of our business, we and the third parties with whom we work process personal data and other sensitive information, including proprietary and confidential business data, trade secrets, intellectual property, data collected about trial participants in connection with clinical trials, and sensitive third-party data. Cyberattacks, malicious internet-based activity, and online and offline fraud are prevalent and continue to increase. These threats are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. The information and data processed and stored in our technology systems, and those of our research collaborators, contractors, consultants, and other third parties with whom we work, are vulnerable to these threats. These threats come from a variety of sources, including traditional computer “hackers,” threat actors, personnel (such as through theft or misuse), sophisticated nation-states, and nation-state-supported actors. During times of war and other major conflicts, we and the third parties with whom we work are vulnerable to a heightened risk of attacks, including retaliatory cyber-attacks that could materially disrupt our systems and operations and supply chain. We and the third parties with whom we work are subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to social-engineering attacks (including through deep fakes, which may be increasingly more difficult to identify as fake, and phishing attacks), malicious code (such as viruses and worms), malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), denial-of-service attacks (such as credential stuffing), personnel misconduct or error, ransomware attacks, supply-chain attacks, software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, adware, attacks enhanced or facilitated by artificial intelligence, or AI, and other similar threats. Ransomware attacks, including by organized criminal threat actors, nation-states, and nation-state-supported actors, are becoming increasingly prevalent and severe and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, loss of data and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments. Additionally, certain personnel remain in a remote work environment and outside of our corporate network security protection boundaries, which imposes additional risks to our business, including increased risk of industrial espionage, phishing and other cybersecurity attacks, and unauthorized dissemination of proprietary or confidential information, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Future or past business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, as our systems could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities’ systems and technologies. Furthermore, we may discover security issues that were not found during due diligence of such acquired or integrated entities, and it may be difficult to integrate companies into our information technology environment and security program. We rely on third parties to operate critical business systems to process sensitive information in a variety of contexts, including, without limitation, third-party providers of cloud-based infrastructure, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, and other functions. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. While we may be entitled to damages if the third parties with whom we work fail to satisfy their privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award. Similarly, supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties’ infrastructure in our supply chain or that of the third parties with whom we work have not been compromised. Likewise, we rely on third-party research institution collaborators, other contractors and consultants for many aspects of our business, including research and development activities and manufacturing of our product candidates, and similar events relating to their information systems could also have a material adverse effect on our business. While we have implemented security measures designed to protect the integrity, confidentiality and security of the sensitive information under our control, we cannot assure you that our security measures, or those of the third parties with whom we work will be effective in preventing security incidents. We take steps designed to detect, mitigate, and remediate vulnerabilities in our information systems (such as our hardware and/or software, including that of third parties with whom we work). We have not, and may not in the future, however, detect and remediate all such vulnerabilities including on a timely basis. There are many different and rapidly evolving cybercrime and hacking techniques, and we may be unable to anticipate attempted security incidents, identify them before our information is exploited, or react in a timely manner. We have in the past and may in the future be unable to detect vulnerabilities in our information technology systems and software. Further, we have in the past (and may in the future) experienced delays in developing and deploying remedial measures designed to address any such identified vulnerabilities. We expend resources and may modify our business activities (including our clinical trial activities) to try to protect against security incidents. Certain data privacy and security obligations have required us to implement and maintain specific security measures, industry-standard or reasonable security measures to protect our information technology systems and sensitive information.