Cyberattacks against the health-care sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the changes in cyberattacks against the health-care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The changes in cyberattacks of the health-care sector are analyzed by examination of the number and essence of published news concerning cybersecurity attacks on the health-care sector during 2019 and compared them to those published during 2020, based on two main websites, which review such incidents.

Findings

This study found that there was a significant growth in reports of cyberattacks on the health-care sector. Moreover, the number of cyberattacks fit interestingly to the pattern of waves of the disease, which expanded worldwide. During the first wave the number of reports was doubled or even tripled, compared to the same period in 2019, a tendency that was slightly waned afterwards.

Practical implications

This study helps to deepen the awareness of information security implications of a potential global devastating crisis, even in the cybersecurity domain, and on the health-care sector, among various other affected sectors and domains.

Social implications

COVID-19 pandemic created long-term wide-range changes that affect every individual and sector, mainly owing to the shift to remote working model, which impose long-term new cybersecurity changes, among them to the health-care industry.

Originality/value

This paper extends the existing information on implication of remote working model on information security and of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cybersecurity of health-care institutions around the world.

Citation

Gafni, R. and Pavel, T. (2022), "Cyberattacks against the health-care sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic", Information and Computer Security, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 137-150. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICS-05-2021-0059