Published Online:December 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Information Technology
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJIT021224
Author Name:Gaurav Mittal and Shipra Mittal
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Engineering
Download Format:PDF
Pages:26-38
While the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the digital adoption across India, it simultaneously opened the doors to cybercriminals. With people increasingly becoming dependent on online banking, UPI and mobile apps, scamsters manipulated the vulnerabilities in the digital system. As people moved away from paper and started sharing most of their critical information on emails, India recorded unprecedented digital growth. But with this shift, the scammers too shifted their ways and began targeting the important information hidden in the attachments of these emails, using the weaknesses that came along with going digital. This paper examines recent cyber incidents where healthcare institutions suffered data breaches due to intercepted email attachments. Highlighting vulnerabilities like unsecured email transmissions and insufficient cybersecurity protocols, the study suggests countermeasures such as PyMinizip for encryption, AWS S3 signed URLs, and multifactor authentication to protect sensitive patient information. Implementing these solutions could radically reduce risks, enhancing the security of email communications and safeguarding people’s personal data.
Email attachment fraud is a growing issue, as healthcare organizations1 increasingly rely on digital communication to transmit sensitive information, such as patient records and personally identifiable information (PII). For instance, high-profile attacks on institutions like AIIMS Delhi2 disrupted critical services for weeks, while phishing campaigns3 masquerading as hospital communications have duped patients into revealing sensitive information.