A new report by Emsisoft documents an increase in ransomware attacks in the US, with 2,207 US hospitals, schools and governments directly impacted in 2023.
According to the report, last year a total of 46 hospital systems and 141 hospitals were hit by ransomware attacks and at least 32 of the 46 systems had protected health information stolen.
Citing data from a University of Minnesota School of Public Health study, between 2016 to 2021, errors and delays from attacks on the US healthcare systems killed an estimated 42 to 67 Medicare patients, or about one per month.
“The longer the ransomware problem remains unfixed, the more people will be killed by it. The only viable mechanism by which governments can quickly reduce ransomware volumes is to ban ransom payments. Ransomware is a profit-driven enterprise. If it is made unprofitable, most attacks will quickly stop,” the report says.
Experts with Cigent, EchoMark and Horizon3.ai offer perspective:
By Ilia Sotnikov, vice president of product management, Netwrix.
Ilia Sotnikov
New warnings from the FBI report “an increased and imminent cybercrime threat” to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers. Experts say the ransomware, called Ryuk, was seen by at least five U.S. hospitals in October. This isn’t unexpected.
In fact, recent research has found that every third healthcare organization experienced a ransomware attack during the past few months. This is the highest exposure across all industries surveyed, above education, finance and public sector. It has disrupted patient care at up to 510 facilities.
So with cyberattacks in healthcare at their peak, it’s time to take heed. Particularly since ransomware in the healthcare sector not only impacts money and reputation, but also human health and lives. And with the current pandemic, healthcare organizations are more vital and fragile than ever.
Today’s healthcare strongly depends on IT; without access to health data and IT systems, doctors cannot provide treatment to patients or make decisions. What is worse, if intensive care units and life-support devices, which are typically connected to the network, are blocked by ransomware, this puts lives of critically ill patients at risk. Such a damage is incomparable to losses in terms of reputation and money, but these still follow as well for healthcare organizations just as they do in other industries.
One of the common reasons why the healthcare industry is vulnerable to ransomware is the frequent use of legacy systems that can be easily exploited by hackers. Making hospitals even more vulnerable to cybercrime is that their IT departments are understaffed. This makes them prone to errors, particularly as they face additional pressure and the demand to support remote work due to pandemic.
In fact, 39% of healthcare organizations suffered from admin mistakes during the past few months. Such mistakes might include improper configurations changes or failure to install updates in a timely manner, which result in vulnerabilities.
The sad reality is that any hospital might fall a victim of ransomware. Therefore, it makes sense to get ready to the worst scenario, taking under consideration the shortage of resources that organizations in the health sector face. Here are five major areas to focus on:
