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

India healthcare sector The report shows that it has become a prime target for cyberattacks. In the last six months, Indian healthcare organizations have experienced an average of 6,935 cases computer attacks per week – significantly more than the global average of 1,821 attacks on the 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.
These new technologies create a larger attack surface cybercriminals for use, the report suggested.
“The simplicity of email spoofing and the ability to deliver weaponized content make email a powerful tool for spreading malicious softwareby stealing credentials and conducting social engineering attacks,” said Sundar Balasubramanian, general manager, India and SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies.
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 identifies other frequently attacked 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 added.
On average, Indian organizations are twice as likely to fall victim to attacks than global organizations, the report added. There are 2,924 attacks per week, compared to the global average of 1,401.

Hacking trends in India over the last six months

The most prevalent malware in India was ‘FakeUpdates’, which was accompanied by other malware such as ‘botnets’ and a remote access trojan (RAT) called ‘Remcos’.
The report indicates that the most exploited vulnerability in India is information disclosure, affecting 72% of organizations. In second place is remote code execution, which affects 62%, and authentication bypass, which affects 525.
In the last 30 days, 63% of malicious files in India were delivered via email and 37% were delivered via the web.
As noted in the report, about 58% of the most popular malicious files delivered via email are executables, while the percentage of malicious files delivered over the web are PDF files, which is 59%.