Health care data security has always been a concern. But in the last year, health care and digital safety have become even more urgent topics in government, business and in the public at large. The reason is the sudden and enormous rise in attacks, both in number and impact. Where are those health care cyberattacks coming from? And, how can cybersecurity teams protect health care data?
Health Care Data in the News
Check Point software reports an incredible 45% increase in attacks on health care in the last two months of 2020 — twice the rate of other verticals. HIPAA Journal reports 642 data breaches of 500 or more records in 2020. They also added up the exposed records, which totaled 29,298,012. Emsisoft found that 560 health care facilities were struck by ransomware attacks in 2020.
Some of the attacks against health care data have done a lot of damage. In one attack in the U.S., some 5,000 network computers were inoperable for 40 days. The total cost of that attack was over $63 million.
Crime does pay, it seems. Ransomware gangs made at least $350 million in 2020, according to the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. That’s a 311% increase over 2019.
Why Health Care Data Presents Unique Problems
Health care cybersecurity attacks are rising fast because the data is so sensitive and worth a lot. An attack that disables internal systems in th ..
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