why cybersecurity is now critical care – Intelligent CISO
why cybersecurity is now critical care – Intelligent CISO
Publish Date: 2026-03-16 08:14:00
Source Domain: www.intelligentciso.com
Africa’s healthcare sector is facing a silent emergency. Many healthcare operators, facilities and doctors across Africa already grapple with the challenges of under-resourced environments, an uneven distribution of resources and massive demand for services.
Kerissa Varma, Microsoft’s Chief Security Advisor for Africa, explains how healthcare administrators must turn their attention to a relatively new and extremely urgent concern. While doctors fight to save lives, cybercriminals are infiltrating hospitals, laboratories and clinics, turning life-saving environments into digital battlegrounds.
Kerissa Varma, Microsoft’s Chief Security Advisor for Africa
A growing epidemic
Recent attacks have exposed the fragility of Africa’s medical infrastructure. In May 2025 Mediclinic Southern Africa was hit by a cyber extortion cyberattack compromising sensitive HR data. Later in 2025 Lancet Laboratories faced a regulatory penalty for failing to notify patients about data breaches under South Africa’s POPIA law, while a ransomware strike on the National Health Laboratory Service disrupted blood test processing nationwide, delaying critical care for millions.
M-Tiba, a Kenyan digital health platform managed by CarePay and backed by Safaricom, suffered a significant cyberattack and data breach in late 2025, while earlier this year Pharmacie.ma, a Moroccan pharmaceutical platform, was reportedly the target of an alleged data leak incident involving the unauthorised export of a customer database. Recent research indicates that Nigeria’s private healthcare sector is now one of the most targeted on the African continent with attacks increasing at an alarming rate.
Many incidents also go unreported as hospitals and healthcare facilities rarely disclose them publicly. These incidents are not isolated, with ransomware dominating the threat landscape. Africa’s healthcare sector is heavily targeted by cybercriminals with…
