India Witnessed Over 1,700 Cyber Attacks a Week, Double the Global Average: Study

According to a report released by the cybersecurity solutions company, Check Point Software Technologies, India reported 1,787 cyber-attacks a week on average in an organisation in the last six months, as compared to the global average of 983. Last year, an organisation in India was attacked 1,866 times per week on average. The report also added that global cyberattacks increased by 38 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2021. The most attacked industry segment in India is the healthcare industry, followed by defence, and education sectors.

The top three vulnerable industry segments have something in common – a hybrid infrastructure, on-premises and cloud, Rupal Shah Hollenback, president of Check Point Software Technologies, told the Hindu BusinessLine. “Plus, they are using regular digital devices at the consumer-facing front. You have industries that are using the cloud more and more while using endpoints, IoT devices and consumer devices at the same time. So, the threat landscape has changed fundamentally in India,” she added.

“As the country becomes digitised, automatically the threat landscape gets bigger. Digitisation just brings in bad cyber actors. There are always bad actors [who] exist on the ground. But now, these bad actors have gone digital,” Hollenback highlighted. Globally, the manufacturing and financial sectors are at the highest risk of cyber threat. “They’re coming in through anywhere from 17 to 45 entry points in an organisation, posing a bigger cybersecurity challenge than ever before,” she told the newspaper.