Tel Aviv, Oct 18 (IANS): The Israeli Ministry of Health has detected an abnormal increase in the number of cyberattack attempts against hospitals and medical organisations in the last two days, the Ministry and the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) said in a joint statement.

The Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies later said that an average of 627 cyberattack attempts per hospital or organization was recorded in Israel on Friday and Saturday, 72 per cent higher than previous weekends, reports Xinhua news agency.

Early preparing and rapid response by the ministry's cyber centre and computer teams in the attacked organisations stopped the attempts and no damage was caused, the joint statement said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry and the directorate continued to work to restore the data systems of the state-owned Hillel Yaffe Medical Centre in the coastal city of Hadera, following a severe cyberattack carried out against the hospital on Wednesday.

Following the cyberattack, the Ministry instructed hospitals to ensure that there is backup data that is separate from hospital networks, including printing of critical medical information.

The Ministry and the INCD stated that they have recently carried out many actions along with healthcare bodies to further strengthen protection levels, while detecting new vulnerabilities that may be used for attacks.