U.S. healthcare institutions are under constant attack from cybercriminals, and unless hospitals take concrete steps to protect themselves, the situation won’t get any better. In 2019, the healthcare industry was the number one target for cyber attackers, with the cost of breaches totaling $4 billion, according to a new report.
2020 Vision: A Review of Major IT & Cybersecurity Issues Affecting Healthcare, published by security intelligence firm CyberMDX, provides an in-depth look at the causes and types of cybersecurity threats affecting the industry, as well as recommendations for healthcare institutions to fortify their cyber defenses.
Attacks on healthcare are prevalent, according to the report, because the industry handles “valuable patient medical records” and has shown a “willingness to pay ransoms to restore care-critical technologies.” And the means for the attacks “are provided by a very wide attack surface that is entirely inadequately protected.”
According to the report, U.S. healthcare targets suffered 426 separate breach events and 759 ransomware attacks in 2019. One of every eight Americans were affected. The number of breached medical records exceeded 40 million, three times as many as in 2018. “In fact, the healthcare industry plays host to roughly 70% of all U.S. data breaches.”
At least 10 hospitals had to turn away patients “due to a compromised ability to deliver care as a result of cyber attacks,” the report says.
In one breach case, involving an attack on the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA), hackers broke into the company’s web payments page and lingered for almost nine months b ..
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