How and why Indian healthcare sector became the prime target of hacking attempts in last 6 months

India's healthcare sector has become a prime target for cyberattacks, a report has said. Over the past six months, Indian healthcare organisations have experienced an average of 6,935 cyberattacks per week – significantly higher than the global average of 1,821 attacks per organisation.
A report by cyber security provider Check Point Software Technologies has revealed that owing to the growing use of technologies like electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in healthcare, the sector has been a prime target for hackers.
These new technologies create a larger attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit, the report suggested.
"The simplicity of spoofing email addresses and the capability to deliver weaponised content make email a powerful tool for spreading malware, stealing credentials, and executing social engineering attacks," said Sundar Balasubramanian, MD for India and SAARC at Check Point Software Technologies.
Balasubramanian urges users to be cautious with emails, avoid opening unverified attachments, use strong passwords, enable multi-factor authentication, and exercise caution with unsolicited or suspicious emails.

The report also identifies other frequently targeted sectors in India. Education 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 organisations are targeted nearly twice as often as global organisations, facing 2,924 attacks per week compared to the global average of 1,401, the report added.

The most prevalent malware in India was 'FakeUpdates', accompanied by other malicious software such as 'botnets’ and a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) named ‘Remcos'.
The report said that information disclosure was the most commonly exploited vulnerability in India, affecting 72% of organisations. It is followed by Remote Code Execution which impacted 62%, and Authentication Bypass affecting 525.
In the last 30 days, 63% of malicious files in India were delivered via email, while 37% were delivered through the web.
About 58% of the top malicious files delivered via email were executable files while the percentage of malicious files delivered via the web were PDF files is 59%, the report noted.