The number of cyber attacks is increasing.
And healthcare has suddenly risen as the third most common target, according to new figures.
86-year-old Gunn-Britt Johansson is one of those affected.
It was at the end of March that the security alarm went off in almost half of the country’s municipalities. In Hylte in Halland, 86-year-old Gunn-Britt Johansson was one of 400 people affected. Her alarm was down for 19 hours before the responsible company got it going again.
– It is very serious because there are many people who need help. It’s not good, says Gunn-Britt Johansson
Among other things, Hylte municipality had to call in extra staff in the home service during the incident, which the hacker group “Anonymous Sudan” with pro-Russian connections later took on.
– It’s lucky that we have thought out strategies in advance on how to solve things if that were to happen. The analogue is still important, says Tererse Montell, unit manager of Hylte municipality’s home service.
1,039 attacks on healthcare
According to new statistics produced by the IT security company Checkpoint, care and healthcare have become an increasingly common target for attacks. In February, a total of 8,677 attacks had been directed at the most vulnerable industries in the past six months. In May, the number had increased to 9,605, of which 1,039 were aimed at healthcare.
– In a cyber attack, a form of service delivery that becomes unavailable to you and me is usually affected, or data that can be exploited is stolen. In healthcare, we talk about life and death. It is of course an extremely big difference, says Mats Ekdahl, security expert Check Point software.
Political motives behind
The motives behind the cyber attacks are usually financial. But after Rasmus Paludan’s Koran burning, the number of attacks with political motives has increased. And according to the experts, the methods and targets are constantly changing.
– The cyber villains have a fairly modern palette of attack weapons. All our organizations need to modernize their cyber defense, says Mats Ekdahl, security expert at Check Point software.