The global burden of cyberattacks has become increasingly heavy for American businesses. 2023 saw a 20% increase compared to 2022, with a large percentage directed at healthcare organizations such as hospitals and cancer clinics.
With one cyber attack occurring every 39 seconds, US healthcare organizations are progressively more at risk for ransomware, breaches, and DNS attacks.
So what does the industry need today to avoid complex outages tomorrow?
To answer this question, let’s reflect on the healthcare industry’s most substantial cyber attacks, including the most recent – Change Healthcare cyber attack.
1. Change Healthcare Cyber Attack: February 2024
The Change Healthcare clearinghouse experienced a systemwide outage after a ransomware attack shut down America’s largest healthcare payment system. Company-wide disruption affected millions of patients and physicians, with thousands of healthcare clinics unable to submit insurance claims for processing.
The company expects to restore claims functionality as of March 15, 2024. However, its ripple effect on both patients and providers has left a lasting impact on the industry at large.
The takeaway: Redundancy is key to navigating the dangerous new world of ransomware. Decentralized communications ensure flexibility and survivability even during clearinghouse outages.
2. OneTouchPoint (OTP): July 2022
OneTouchPoint, a printing vendor serving healthcare organizations, discovered locked and encrypted files in July 2022. A few weeks later in early August, more than 30 OTP clients (all of which were healthcare and insurance providers) announced breaches ..
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