INDUSTRY FACT FILE · HEALTHCARE & HEALTHTECH

Threat Landscape: Top Cyber Threats Facing Hospitals and Healthtech

The 18 most relevant cyber threats, attacks and industry challenges for hospitals, diagnostic networks, telemedicine providers and digital health platforms.

Healthcare attackers want two things: data and leverage. Medical records sell well and support fraud, and hospitals under pressure to restore care are more likely to pay ransoms. Legacy systems, flat networks and vendor-managed devices make hospitals especially exposed.

The 2022 ransomware attack on AIIMS New Delhi forced manual operations, and the 2024 attack on a major US health-payment processor disrupted claims and pharmacy payments across the country—showing both the clinical and financial impact.

The list below is a practical assessment framework, not a statistical ranking. Priority varies by business model, technology exposure and existing controls.

The matrix is a qualitative guide for prioritising the first round of security reviews.

Figure 5: Qualitative threat relevance by healthcare segment (Codec Networks assessment).

4.1 Ransomware and downtime

Flat hospital networks let attackers move from an admin PC to clinical servers. Encryption of HIS, LIS and PACS stops registration, labs and imaging, forcing paper processes and diverting patients.

• Questions to test: Are clinical, admin and device networks segmented? Are backups immutable and restore times known? Are downtime procedures practised?
• Relevant services: segmentation review, ransomware simulation, backup and restore testing, managed SOC, incident response.

4.2 Patient data leakage and portals

Report portals and APIs often use predictable identifiers or weak authorisation, letting attackers download reports in bulk.

• Questions to test: Are report links unguessable and expiring? Is object-level authorisation enforced? Are bulk downloads monitored?
• Relevant services: portal and API testing, data protection programme, download monitoring.

4.3 Medical IoT

Connected devices often run outdated software, cannot be patched easily and sit on shared networks with guest or admin traffic.

• Questions to test: Is there a complete device inventory? Are devices segmented and access-controlled? Are device management servers tested?
• Relevant services: medical IoT inventory and testing, segmentation, IoMT monitoring.

4.4 Vendors, apps and consent

HIS, PACS and cloud vendors often hold remote access, apps embed third-party SDKs, and integrations may skip consent checks.

• Questions to test: Is vendor access brokered and monitored? Do apps send health data to SDKs? Is consent verified and logged for every record fetch?
• Relevant services: vendor risk assessments, app and SDK privacy testing, consent-flow testing.

4.5 Detection and the 6-hour clock

CERT-In requires reporting within six hours of noticing an incident. Many hospitals lack 24x7 security monitoring and discover incidents only when systems fail.

• Questions to test: Are clinical and IT systems monitored around the clock? Is there a playbook covering clinical continuity and reporting?
• Relevant services: managed SOC, playbooks, tabletop exercises, IR retainer.

• CERT-In: incidents reported within six hours of noticing them.
• Privacy: personal data breaches must be intimated to the Data Protection Board and affected individuals once DPDP breach provisions commence in May 2027.
• ABDM participants: incidents affecting integrated health data may trigger obligations under ABDM policies.
• Insurers, TPAs and schemes: partners may require notification and review.
• Accreditation: incidents may be examined during accreditation assessments.

• Could ransomware on one PC reach our HIS, LIS and PACS?
• How long would it take to restore clinical systems from backup?
• Do we know every connected medical device and where it sits on the network?
• Could someone download other patients' reports from our portal?
• Which vendors can reach our clinical systems remotely?
• Could we report an incident to CERT-In within six hours while keeping care running?

Note: Threat descriptions and relevance ratings are general guidance, not findings about any specific organisation. Public incident references are summarised from widely reported events.