Healthcare Sector Turns to be the Prime Target of Cyberattacks!
Wednesday, 14 October 2020, 19:59 IST
Cyberattacks have always been a nightmare for almost every organization. According to a Kaspersky Security Network report, nearly 52,820,874 cyber threats were detected and blocked in India during the Q1 in 2020. This number has indeed elevated India’s global ranking in cyber threats from 32nd position in 2019 to 27th in 2020. But, the pandemic has created havoc for the healthcare organizations that had to relentlessly operate even during the strict lockdown.
Netwrix’s “2020 Cyber Threats Report” has hinted that about 32 percent of a healthcare organization has been subjected to ransomware attacks during the initial months of the lockdown. And eight in every 10 healthcare organizations have regularly reported the security breach to executive management. IBM study unveils that, an average cost of the cyber breach for an Indian organization has touched Rs.14 crore in 2020 i.e., a single stolen record is estimated to be Rs. 5,522. The cost of a cyber-breach has raised by 9.4 percent as compared to last year which stood at Rs.12.8 crore.
"There has been a significant increase in the number of attacks in 2020 Q1 that may continue to rise further in Q2 as well, especially in the current scenario where we notice an increase in cybercriminal activities, especially in the Asia Pacific region. Risks like data leakage, connection to unsecured Wi-Fi networks, phishing attacks, spyware, apps with weak encryption (also known as broken cryptography) are some of the common mobile threats that Android users face," said Saurabh Sharma, Senior Security Researcher, GReAT Asia Pacific at Kaspersky. (Source: IANS)
But, what has led the phisher to target the healthcare sector?
Generally, the healthcare industry holds a lot of crucial information about the patients as well as doctors that include the patient’s medical history and report, insurance records. Also, what attracts malicious activity is the recent increase in medical IoT equipment that enables internet access to all the data stored in the device. Thus, these healthcare organizations are constantly been warned about monitoring their cybersecurity.
The organization tends to take a long duration to realize that its data has been breached. According to Netwrix’s “2020 Cyber Threats Report” states that about 74 percent of the organization takes around weeks or even months to discover the incident, while, 26 percent organization found it in just a few hours. Thus, as popularly stated prevention is always better than cure. Healthcare organizations should focus on improvising the storage of valuable and sensitive information of their patients that are most sought after by the hackers.
Presently, healthcare is one of the largest industries of economic activity globally hence, it attracts a higher number of ransomware threats in comparison with other sectors. Furthermore, the hospitals should be cautious about the system and medical devices that store the patient information. Thus, any loss of network activity could also lead to disruption in the management operations which in turn would affect the medical device functioning hindering the patients. In addition to all these issues, the persistent functioning of healthcare organizations also makes it more prone to cyber-attacks.
Remedies to Curb Cyberthreats in Healthcare Sector
•Analyze the possible risks: The healthcare organizations should focus on their vulnerabilities and list out the potential attacks.
•Plan and implement best practices: Even after adopting the security measures suggested by the professionals. The organization must take the responsibility to make it a routine to implement the suggested security measures on regular basis without fail.
•Simulate threats and retort: Simulation enhances the ability to detect the potential of cyber-attacks and discard it.
Dipesh Kaura, General Manager for South Asia, Kaspersky said, "In order to mitigate some of the major risks like data breaches, targeted ransomware attacks, large scale (distributed denial-of-service) DDoS attacks, and more. Hence, businesses will need to allocate their budgets correctly to build a stronger security infrastructure." (Source: IANS)
Netwrix’s “2020 Cyber Threats Report” has hinted that about 32 percent of a healthcare organization has been subjected to ransomware attacks during the initial months of the lockdown. And eight in every 10 healthcare organizations have regularly reported the security breach to executive management. IBM study unveils that, an average cost of the cyber breach for an Indian organization has touched Rs.14 crore in 2020 i.e., a single stolen record is estimated to be Rs. 5,522. The cost of a cyber-breach has raised by 9.4 percent as compared to last year which stood at Rs.12.8 crore.
"There has been a significant increase in the number of attacks in 2020 Q1 that may continue to rise further in Q2 as well, especially in the current scenario where we notice an increase in cybercriminal activities, especially in the Asia Pacific region. Risks like data leakage, connection to unsecured Wi-Fi networks, phishing attacks, spyware, apps with weak encryption (also known as broken cryptography) are some of the common mobile threats that Android users face," said Saurabh Sharma, Senior Security Researcher, GReAT Asia Pacific at Kaspersky. (Source: IANS)
But, what has led the phisher to target the healthcare sector?
Generally, the healthcare industry holds a lot of crucial information about the patients as well as doctors that include the patient’s medical history and report, insurance records. Also, what attracts malicious activity is the recent increase in medical IoT equipment that enables internet access to all the data stored in the device. Thus, these healthcare organizations are constantly been warned about monitoring their cybersecurity.
The organization tends to take a long duration to realize that its data has been breached. According to Netwrix’s “2020 Cyber Threats Report” states that about 74 percent of the organization takes around weeks or even months to discover the incident, while, 26 percent organization found it in just a few hours. Thus, as popularly stated prevention is always better than cure. Healthcare organizations should focus on improvising the storage of valuable and sensitive information of their patients that are most sought after by the hackers.
Presently, healthcare is one of the largest industries of economic activity globally hence, it attracts a higher number of ransomware threats in comparison with other sectors. Furthermore, the hospitals should be cautious about the system and medical devices that store the patient information. Thus, any loss of network activity could also lead to disruption in the management operations which in turn would affect the medical device functioning hindering the patients. In addition to all these issues, the persistent functioning of healthcare organizations also makes it more prone to cyber-attacks.
Remedies to Curb Cyberthreats in Healthcare Sector
•Analyze the possible risks: The healthcare organizations should focus on their vulnerabilities and list out the potential attacks.
•Plan and implement best practices: Even after adopting the security measures suggested by the professionals. The organization must take the responsibility to make it a routine to implement the suggested security measures on regular basis without fail.
•Simulate threats and retort: Simulation enhances the ability to detect the potential of cyber-attacks and discard it.
Dipesh Kaura, General Manager for South Asia, Kaspersky said, "In order to mitigate some of the major risks like data breaches, targeted ransomware attacks, large scale (distributed denial-of-service) DDoS attacks, and more. Hence, businesses will need to allocate their budgets correctly to build a stronger security infrastructure." (Source: IANS)
