Indian healthcare sector needs strong cybersecurity regime: Sophos survey

This survey interviewed 2,700 IT decision makers in 10 countries and across five continents, including the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Japan, India and South Africa

The burgeoning healthcare business in India is the most vulnerable and weak while implementing cyber security solutions for protecting IT infrastructure reveals in a global survey conducted by cybersecurity provider Sophos. In the latest survey, the finding shows that globally the healthcare sector impacted the highest by ransomware at 76 per cent. Besides healthcare, the survey also tapped the cybersecurity regime in other sectors such as financial services, IT, technology and telecoms, business and professional services, manufacturing and production amongst others.

This survey interviewed 2,700 IT decision makers in 10 countries and across five continents, including the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Japan, India and South Africa. Out of which, 300 respondents were from India, based in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai. Nearly, 6 per cent respondents were from healthcare sector covering hospitals, pharma, manufacturers, and products.

Commenting on the readiness of hospitals from any cyber threats, MD Sales, Sophos India & SAARC Sunil Sharma said, “The State of Endpoint Security in Indian hospital needs more attention and preparedness for handling cyber threats like ransomware and malware attacks. More and more advanced cyber threat actors are turning their attention to attacks against the healthcare sector. Not only in India, even global hospitals need to ramp up their cybersecurity policies for protecting their IT assets.”

Ransomware continues to be a major issue across the globe with 54 per cent of organisations surveyed hit in the last year and a further 31 per cent expecting to be victims of an attack in the future. On average, respondents impacted by ransomware were struck twice. In India, 67 per cent Indian businesses hit by ransomware, 38 per cent twice.

Sharma also emphasised that healthcare business needs to move from traditional security software like antivirus and deploy sophisticated security solutions, “Given the speed at which IT threats are evolving and becoming more persistent and coordinated, it is a deep concern to see the adoption of the next-generation predictive technologies. It is important for organisations to keep up in this dynamic world of IT threats. Organisations need effective anti-ransomware, anti-exploit, and deep learning technology to stay secure in 2018 and beyond.”