Surge in cyber attacks on Indian vax makers in Oct-Nov: Report

There has been a massive surge in cyber attacks against the India vaccine makers and hospitals in the month of October and December, a new report warned on Friday.

According to latest research by New Delhi-based think tank CyberPeace Foundation, nearly 80 lakh attacks were recorded between October 1 and November 25 observed on the healthcare sector-based 'Threat Intelligence Sensors' network specifically simulated in India.

In October, a total of 54,34,825 and in November (till now), a total 16,43,169 number of cyber-attack events have been identified on the network.

According to the report, exposed systems that are unmonitored and facing the Internet are the most attacked system for the attackers.

The research showed that Internet-facing systems having Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) enabled, old windows server platform were the most attacked ones.

"Many ransomware attacks have taken place on the healthcare sector during this crisis, to be specific starting in April 2020," the Foundation said in a statement.

Attackers have also targeted the medical manufacturing sector's billing system through ransomware.

The most common ransomware that has been seen during the Covid-19 situation is ‘NetWalker ransomware', ‘PonyFinal ransomware', ‘Maze ransomware' etc, the report said.

Earlier this month, Microsoft detected cyber attacks from nation-state actors targeting seven prominent companies directly involved in researching vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, including in India.

Although Microsoft did not reveal the names of the vaccine makers, at least seven Indian pharma companies are working to develop a vaccine against coronavirus, led by Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech.