Targeted ransomware attacks on Indian pharma firms to surge in 2021: Report

New Delhi: Targeted ransomware attacks on the healthcare and pharma sector will surge in India in 2021 as companies finalise their vaccines to fight Covid-19, a new report said on Wednesday.

Healthcare and pharma sector companies that have been in the front lines working to fight against the pandemic in the country are facing a new wave of ransomware attacks and extortion demands lately.

According to the 'threat prediction 2021' report by Seqrite, an enterprise security solutions brand by Quick Heal Technologies, although few ransomware operators agreed not to attack the healthcare sector during the Covid-19 crisis, several other attack groups have continued to use ransomware against this sector, largely because of the sensitive and personal data of patients they store.

Numerous hospitals, COVID-19 research firms, and pharma companies have fallen victim to ransomware in the last quarter of 2020, "making it necessary for them to adopt or deploy a comprehensive set of security solutions," the findings showed, without sharing the names of the victims.

"The pandemic acted as a huge opportunity for cyber criminals to innovate their attack strategies further, and steal sensitive data for their personal gain," said Himanshu Dubey, Director, Quick Heal Security Labs.