Researchers at cybersecurity vendor, Check Point, have reported a surge in cyberattacks targeting healthcare organisations across the globe. Since the beginning of November 2020, researchers have documented a 45% increase in cyberattacks targeting healthcare organisations worldwide, placing the healthcare sector at the top of the hit list for cybercriminals, when compared to all other industries.
The surge in cyberattacks on the healthcare sector was double the increase in cyberattacks on all other industries during the same time period, as researchers marked only a 22% increase in attacks on all other sectors outside of healthcare. The increase in attacks involves a range of attack vectors, including ransomware, botnets, remote code execution and DDoS attacks. Ransomware showed the largest increase and poses as the most significant malware threat to healthcare organisations, when compared to other industry sectors.
Cyberattacks by region
The surges in cyberattacks on healthcare organisations occurred mostly in Central Europe (+145%), followed by East Asia (+137%), Latin America (+112%), Europe (67%) and North America (37%). As for specific countries, Canada experienced the most dramatic increase with over a 250% uptick in attacks, followed by Germany with a 220% increase. Spain saw a doubling in ransomware attacks on its healthcare sector.
Omer Dembinsky, Manager of Data Intelligence at Check Point, said: “Cyberattacks on the global healthcare sector are simply getting out of control. This is because targeting hospitals equates to fast money for cybercriminals.”
