On Thursday, a governmental report revealed that nearly 1.9 million cyber-attacks had been recorded on the Indian healthcare network from countries like Pakistan, China, and Vietnam in 2022. The report noted that cyber-attacks on healthcare facilities in India have been rising in recent years, and the pandemic has only worsened matters.

The majority of the attacks targeted vulnerable Internet-facing systems with Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), vulnerable SMB and database services, and old Windows server platforms. According to the report, the deployed network has captured a total of 1,527 unique payloads belonging to Trojans, ransomware, etc.

The healthcare-based threat intelligence sensor network, deployed by the CyberPeace Foundation and Autobot Infosec Private Ltd., along with the academic partners under the CyberPeace Center of Excellence (CCoE), saw a surge in cyberattacks between January and November 28, from a total of 41,181 unique IP addresses.

A spokesperson for the CyberPeace Foundation stated that by deploying the simulated network, they can collect data on attack patterns, the different types of attack vectors for the different protocols, and the recent trends in malicious activity. ON analyzing the data, they found that the attackers tried to exploit DICOM, MySQL, and MSSQL protocols to access sensitive patient data like medical images, diagnostic databases, etc.

The report emphasized that organizations should ensure their systems are secured by reducing unnecessary data, improving the patch level of software, implementing backup and restore procedures, and auditing systems to build awareness of any threats.