Today, Comparitech released the results of its most recent study, looking at the true cost of ransomware on healthcare organisations around the world. It found that, since 2018, there have been 500 publicly-confirmed ransomware attacks; and this excludes those that may have not been disclosed at all. In total, these have crippled nearly 13,000 separate facilities and have impacted almost 49 million patient records. As such, Comparitech was able to estimate that these attacks exceed US$92 billion in downtime alone.
Ransomware attacks have the potential to cause widespread disruption to any organisation. Not only can they encrypt key systems, they can put personal data at risk of theft and exploitation. Place this scenario in a healthcare environment, and the stakes are much higher. Critical systems and patient data may become inaccessible, causing severe delays and, in the worst case scenario, could even be deadly. For example, a lawsuit in Alabama, due for trial this month, suggests a ransomware attack on a hospital led to a baby’s death in 2019.
In their study, Comparitech also explores the extent of ransomware attacks across healthcare organisations around the world. Using data from their worldwide ransomware tracker, the team explored the growing threat of ransomware in the healthcare sector and the true cost of these attacks. However, as the results only include publicly-confirmed attacks, the presented figures likely only scratch the surface.
The key findings highlighted in this report are as shown:
From the beginning of 2018 to October 2022, Comparitech research found:
500 individual ransomware attacks on healthcare organisations. 2021 was the biggest year for attacks with 166 in total
12,961 separate hospitals/clinics/organisations were potentially affected
48,847,107 individual pa ..
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