Cyber ​​attacks on healthcare facilities doubled in 2021

Le Figaro newspaper reported on Tuesday that cyber-attacks against health institutions doubled in 2021 in France, with 730 incidents notified to the Digital Health Agency (ANS).

The number of computer security incidents notified to the Digital Health Agency has doubled compared to 2020, the year in which 369 cyber attacks were recorded, according to the newspaper, citing the ANS’ Director of Experience and Innovation, Marc Luttrell.

The pandemic has created a particularly fertile ground for cyberattacks. Health institutions, like the rest of society, have been subjected to forced digitization, resulting in some loopholes along the way. The user is often the entry point for cybercriminals.

In 2021, about 2,000 alerts were sent to health institutions in the sights of hackers, an increase of 150% year on year, according to the official, who stresses that hackers come from different parts of the world but ” Some packages of evidence refer to Eastern Europe“.

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According to the expert, often behind these attacks there is a financial, and to a lesser extent a political one.

And to make it clear that for malicious organizations, health data is real black gold that is being sold in abundance on the dark web.

The data leaked in France doubled during the epidemic, the most serious of which was related to 500,000 French medical files that were put up for sale in February 2021, after they were looted from the databases of the Breton and Norman laboratories.

In addition to the risks to patient data, these attacks can have more serious consequences and cause patients to die when the hospital finds itself paralyzed by a cyber attack.

In France, 34 accidents put patients’ lives at risk in 2020, according to the annual ANS report. The balance sheet for 2021 is not yet known but it looks similar, the expert confirms.

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