Genomics England Limited (GEL) carries out genomic research and analysis to create advanced healthcare outcomes. It stores, processes and analyses enormous quantities of genomic and other clinical data to advance knowledge of the human genome and how its power can be harnessed by medicine.
In order to better manage the processing of their complex research data environments, GEL migrated many of their systems to the AWS cloud.

The data that GEL processes is highly sensitive – including individual medical information as well as long-term studies and research findings. They need to protect that data from bad actors at all costs.
Within their on-premise systems, GEL were using Darktrace, and so decided that the logical step was to extend the protective shield that Darktrace offers into their cloud environment.

The idea behind Darktrace is that each organisation’s network has its own unique identity: individual traffic patterns, applications, hardware, browsing patterns, and user behaviour. Darktrace learns these patterns so that it can detect any deviations.

Unlike traditional security solutions, the Enterprise Immune System does not rely on policies or threat signatures – instead, it uses Recursive Bayesian Estimation (RBE) theory to learn about the ‘normal’ state of the network, and identify anomalies which do not fit that pattern. This approach can help detect attackers that have already breached the network perimeter, and do this in real-time.

When it came to designing and implementing the Darktrace environment for the cloud, Genomics England approached The Server Labs (TSL). TSL are cloud architects and experts in cloud security.

GEL already had a physical Darktrace appliance managing their on-premise environment, so the approach was to install Darktrace in the cloud, and to network the cloud deployment back to the appliance.