A naukri.com initiative
Securityintelligence
2M
179
Image Credit: Securityintelligence
When ransomware kills: Attacks on healthcare facilities
- Ransomware attacks are increasing on healthcare facilities and are having devastating effects.
- Digital systems are critical to the management of patient care,
- with ransomware strikes leading to offline systems and other delays, which can be fatal,
- as well as diverting emergency services and disrupting life-saving treatments.
- The healthcare industry is uniquely vulnerable, with examples of such attacks leading to hazardous implications for public health and safety.
- Research shows that whereby ransomware hits an individual hospital, the neighbouring hospital sees a surge in patients,
- resulting in cardiac arrest rates jumping 81%. Additionally, the spillover effect of such attacks affects care quality and causes reduced care quality, increased risk of error and missed diagnoses, delayed treatments and higher healthcare costs.
- Healthcare facilities represent an attractive target for ransomware because they hold sensitive personal, medical and financial data, are more likely to pay the ransom faster because lives are at risk,
- and have a high cost of downtime.
- As ransomware attacks grow more sophisticated, it is becoming common for those in the the cybersecurity industry to call for policy changes to better reflect the threat.
Read Full Article
10 Likes
For uninterrupted reading, download the app