The news of the attack on Serco today continues a trend we have seen developing over the last year. 

 From over-stretched hospital wards to vaccine development labs, the healthcare industry has seen an increase in attacks during COVID. The urgency of this crisis has made distributing malware easier than ever for cybercriminals looking to exploit the critical nature of medical data. 

Sadly, ransomware and information stealers are the most common type of malware used against the healthcare sector. BlackBerry’s latest research uncovered that globally, healthcare organisations are more likely to pay ransoms than other industries due to the critical nature of the targeted data. 

While many hospitals have the technology to defend against these threats, they lack large and highly skilled teams. Automation is key: Technology must take on the heavy lifting, to allow healthcare professionals to prioritise both immediate care and ever-present cyber threats.