Cyberattacks on Indian healthcare industry 2nd highest in the world

The number of cyberattacks on the Indian healthcare industry were second highest globally, with 7.7 per cent of total incidence on the segment being witnessed in the country in 2021, cyber security intelligence firm CloudSEK said on Tuesday.

According to the CloudSEK report on ‘Increased cyberattacks on the global healthcare sector’, the US healthcare industry faced 28 per cent of the total global attacks. The 7.7 per cent of cyberattack incidence in the Indian healthcare industry translates to over 71 lakh records, according to the report.

CloudSEK is among the entities that provides cyber threat intelligence to Indian cyber security watchdog CERTin.

According to the firm, the technological advancement in the healthcare industry – like remote health monitoring, electronic health records and the Internet of Things (IoT) – provided cyber criminals with more opportunities to attack the sector.

The data collated by CloudSEK shows that there have already been 1.87 lakh records in the first four months of 2022.

The dynamics of attack seem to have changed in 2022 at global level. Australia has been the most-hit country with around 70 crore records followed by Thailand which has faced over 10 crore records in the first four months of 2022, according to the report.