A recent report states that Indian healthcare providers face a total of 8,614 cyberattacks each week. That's more than four times the global average and more than twice the amount facing other Indian industries.
If the emotions were in the air before, the numbers will definitely remain. India's healthcare sector is an attractive target for today's attackers.
Indian Healthcare leads the pack of rising cybercrime victims
One of the India-based security companies reported a 20% rise in cybercrime rates among Indian clients in 2024. The Healthcare and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector was hit hardest by “100% of monitored healthcare websites encountered bot-driven attacks.” Additionally, SMEs experienced a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack of 236% more than their large counterparts.
The Data Security Council in India's Cyber Threat Report 2025 also noted this trend, saying that India's healthcare sector accounted for almost 22% of all attacks last year. This is a significant climb, up 8% points from 2023.
Diagnosis of cyberhealth issues in India
In many ways, the medical department is hard to protect wherever you go.
Ransomware
Life and death scenarios unfold daily in hospitals and medical groups, they are particularly willing to play ball. When an attacker attacks these agencies with ransomware, he knocks offline on critical systems. Downtime for healthcare organizations can mean more than bad press or loss of revenue. That can mean a loss of life. Knowing this, the attackers will bump into healthcare where it hurts, and the Indian organization is no exception.
Medical IoT (MIOT)
Medical IoT devices are particularly attractive targets for today's AI-powered threat actors. Combining artificial intelligence and MIOT can be done productively, but it also introduces invisible vulnerabilities in the mix. Medical IoT environments have historically neglected security and are therefore fully susceptible to the effects. Violation of one of these devices allows patient data to be sucked up at best. In the worst case scenario, stop the heart monitor or infusion pump.
Telehealth recruitment
The convenience of seeing your doctor anytime, anywhere comes at a price. The cost of that connectivity is a vulnerability to internet-based attacks by snooping cybercriminals. Consulting firm Deloitte warns healthcare organizations to “beware of location-based clues that could indicate cyber threats.”
India – A country still in the growth stage of cybersecurity
These issues are foresightful, but are “attached to the territory” for healthcare providers around the world. But, coupled with the country's entire cybersecurity culture still under development, Indian healthcare providers are particularly easy targets for repeated cybercrime attacks.
Legacy System
The country is steadily improving its rankings for the Global Technology Index, but India has room for the development of healthcare technology and technology to protect it. As stated in India today, “Many of India's healthcare systems rely on outdated legacy technologies, are susceptible to attacks and have limited financial resources to upgrade security, making the issue even worse.”
Cyber Maturity
Lack of cyber maturity and available cybersecurity experts also expose the Indian health sector. Small and medium-sized businesses in Japan are particularly struggling with these restrictions. This cannot dodge the attack due to a relatively weak security infrastructure and limited access to SOCs for full staff.
Rules
Currently, there is no national unified cybersecurity law regarding Indian books. There are also no medical-specific cybersecurity rules. To fill these gaps, the Information Technology Act (IT Act), the Confidential Personal Data or Information Rules (SPDI Rules), and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) (not yet enforced).
Looking forward to it, the Indian Data Security Council has recently been working with the Association for Health Information and Management Systems (HIMSS) to conduct a national level analysis of India's cybersecurity stance.
Real-world impacts on health care and health in India
The rising attack rate is damaging enough, but nothing conveys the importance of India's medical security situation as in actual cases.
AI-driven ransomware attacks
Last August, an Indian healthcare provider specializing in AI advancement was hit by an AI-driven ransomware attack. Starting with a phishing email, hospital administrators click on the attachment, and malware injected into AI began encrypting sensitive organizational data.
The results were quick and shocking. Patient hospitalization was affected, medical procedures were delayed, and surgery had to be rerouted to other facilities. Electronic patient records and claims data were not available due to the encrypted key data and increased risk. The company ultimately chose not to pay the ransom in collaboration with law enforcement, but suffered damage to patient information, patient trust and patient health.
From deleted data to death threats
Another example of the following month once again challenged the capacity of India's healthcare sector to respond. In September 2024, Chennai-based Star Health Insurance was a victim of a malicious cyber incident that was sold on custom websites after sensitive data on 31 million patients was compromised.
It's disastrous for the patients involved, but this is typical of ransomware cases where behavior is targeted at other healthcare if it's not for the duration of its behavior. The attacker, “Xenzen,” claimed that the data was sold directly by the provider. This is the move Star Health claimed it was calculated to “incite panic.”
In March this year, the same attacker mailed two packages containing bullet cartridges in an announced threat to the company's CEO and CFO. A possible example of hacktivism, Xenzen claimed to have acted after hearing a customer's rejected medical claim.
These attacks indicate clear. For Indian healthcare companies, patients and executives, interests are rising for the patients involved.
Healthcare Cyber Defense Best Practices
In light of the specific challenges facing the Indian healthcare sector, security solutions focused on current resources and compliance are important.
Ransomware Protection: FORTRA ransomware protection allows hard-hit healthcare providers to take advantage of a set of classes of solutions for early detection and malware prevention. Protest Projection: Most traditional email solutions – hospitals in the fight can invest – can't detect advanced attacks such as phishing, business email congestion, etc. Fortra Cloud Email Security, Integrated Cloud Mail Security (ICES) Solutions, CAN.CAN.BRAND Protection: FORTRA Takedown services like Managed Digital Risk Protection provide support to browse the Internet when lies or leaks appear around healthcare organizations. When dealing with a patient's health, nothing is more important than the trust they have. Medical IoT Defense: The best way to ensure that your MIOT device is safe for use is to place it in your tests. FORTRA attack security solutions such as FORTRA Application Security Testing and FORTRA Vulnerability Management, FORTRA Cobalt Strike (Red Teaming) can explore critical devices and provide managed options for lighter in-house loads.
Conclusion
India's healthcare sector has all the problems that other healthcare sectors have, and there are not many. The country still has a maturity level of cybersecurity under development. The paint is not yet dried with established cybersecurity initiatives of solids directed towards each sector and passed time tests. Geopolitical tensions are rising, and technical adoption is moving at a fierce speed.
And there are all the issues specific to health systems with availability-driven, compliant dependencies, including data. All of these are combined to bring the perfect storm for Indian healthcare organizations.
One thing is certain. Now is the time to bring awareness to this particular country, and to this particular sector, the fact that world con artists are now zero at this particular time. It's time to draw attention to the fact that India's healthcare system is attacked more than four times more week than the global average.
And it's time for India to level and respond to awareness, employee training, meaningful cybersecurity investments, and its cyber capabilities. Regardless of the cost, the well-being of their people and their patients depends on it.
Editor's note: The opinions expressed in this and other guest author articles are those of contributors and do not necessarily reflect the Fortra articles.
