How and why India’s healthcare sector has become a prime target for hacking attempts over the past 6 months

The report found that the Indian healthcare sector has become a major target for cyberattacks. Over the past six months, Indian healthcare organizations have experienced an average of 6,935 cyberattacks per week — significantly higher than the global average of 1,821 attacks per organization.

A report by Check Point Software Technologies, a cybersecurity solutions provider, revealed that due to the increasing use of technologies such as electronic health records (EHR), telemedicine and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in healthcare, the sector has become a major target of hackers.

The report indicates that these new technologies create greater attack opportunities for cybercriminals.

“The simplicity of email spoofing and the ability to deliver threatening content make email a powerful tool for spreading malware, stealing credentials and conducting social engineering attacks,” said Sundar Balasubramanian, managing director of Check Point Software Technologies at India and SAARC.

Balasubramanian urges users to be careful when using email, avoid opening unverified attachments, use strong passwords, enable multi-factor authentication and be wary of unwanted or suspicious emails.

What other sectors in India are you targeting?
The report also highlights other frequently targeted sectors in India. Educational and research institutions face an average of 6,244 attacks per week, followed by consulting (3,989 attacks) and government/military (3,618 attacks), the report adds.

Indian organizations are attacked twice as often as global organizations, the report added, with 2,924 attacks reported per week, compared to the global average of 1,401.

Hacking trends in India in the last six months
The most widespread malware in India was ‘FakeUpdates’, accompanied by other malware such as ‘botnets’ and a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) called ‘Remcos’.

The report said that Information Disclosure was the most commonly exploited vulnerability in India, affecting 72% of organizations. This was followed by Remote Code Execution, which affected 62% of organizations, and Authentication Bypass, which affected 525 organizations.

In the last 30 days, 63% of malicious files in India were delivered via email and 37% via the web.

The report found that around 58% of the most common malicious files delivered via email are executables, while the percentage of malicious files delivered over the web as PDFs is 59%.