THE health sector encountered an average of 830 cyberattacks every week throughout 2021, a staggering 71 per cent increase from the previous year, according to Check Point Software’s 2022 Security Report.

This makes healthcare one of the most heavily targeted industries in the world, ahead of utilities, banking and manufacturing sectors.

The report noted that the healthcare sector has been heavily and repeatedly attacked by organised cyber criminals since the beginning of the pandemic, with hospitals, research facilities and pharmaceutical companies being targeted due to the high-value, time-sensitive nature of work.

“As the sector continues to experiment with the internet of things (IoT) solutions, from wearable biometric scanners and automated prescriptions to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, its attack surface area is expanding faster than its security can keep up with,” it said.

The report noted that finances were the main motivation for threat actors targeting the healthcare sector, from hospitals and clinics to research facilities and charity organisations.

“The more important the sector’s work, the more tempting the target becomes for threat actors. The health sector has always been vulnerable to extortion, but the pandemic increased this vulnerability tenfold.

“The potential points of entry for threat actors are multiplying every year, so hospitals and other healthcare environments should therefore be thinking about ways to minimise this potential attack surface and reduce risk,” it said.

Given the situation, the report suggested for hospitals and other healthcare environments to have full visibility over every connected device or endpoint.

“Subsequently, they can assign a risk weighting to each device or category of devices before setting granular security policies that reflect the level of risk,” it said.

It added that by investing in proactive threat monitoring and detection solutions, clinics, hospitals and research facilities will be able to guard against the rising tide of targeted attacks, giving themselves a clean bill of health for 2022 and beyond. – Bernama, April 25, 2022.