Healthcare Industry takes 45% spike in cyber attack scanner since Nov 20

Cyberattacks targeting healthcare organizations have spiked by 45% since November 2020 as COVID-19 cases continue to increase globally. As per a news report published and shared, the healthcare sector has pulled cybercriminals’ attention more to an overall 22% increase in cyberattacks across all industry sectors worldwide seen during the same time period.

The average number of weekly attacks in the healthcare sector has reached 626 per organization in November as opposed to 430 the previous month, with attack vectors ranging from ransomware, botnets, remote code execution, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

Ransomware attacks against hospitals also marked their biggest jump, with Ryuk and Sodinokibi emerging as the primary ransomware variants employed by various criminal groups.

“The usage of Ryuk emphasizes the trend of having more targeted and tailored ransomware attacks rather than using a massive spam campaign, which allows the attackers to make sure they hit the most critical parts of the organization and have a higher chance of getting paid,” Omer Dembinsky, Check Point’s manager of data intelligence said.

The alert cautioned of adversaries targeting the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector with TrickBot and BazarLoader malware, resulting in ransomware infections, data theft, and the disruption of healthcare services.

Over the past two months, state-sponsored actors have ramped up their cyber assaults against government health ministries and companies involved in COVID-19 vaccine distribution, not to mention staging ransomware attacks on pharmaceutical firms such as Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories that are engaged in vaccine trials.

Ransomware cases, in particular, have capitalized on the coronavirus pandemic, not least because it boosts the likelihood that hospitals will meet attackers’ demands to quickly recover access to critical systems and provide care to patients. Back in June, the University of California paid the hackers 116 bitcoin ($1.14 million) after a NetWalker attack on its systems.

“Medical services and research organizations [have become] targets for attacks seeking to steal valuable commercial and professional information, or to disrupt vital research operations,” the researchers concluded.