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Hospitals are at a high risk of cyberattacks, but patients don't realize it:
Information technology experts are worried about increasing rates of ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations. Most patients, though, don't know they're happening, according to a new survey.
Southern Ohio Medical Center, a not-for-profit hospital in Portsmouth, Ohio, canceled appointments for today and is diverting ambulances after it was hit by a cyberattack on Thursday. It's part of a series of escalating attacks on healthcare organizations in the past two years — a trend that could have serious consequences for patient care.
But while information technology experts are well aware that the risk of cyberattacks that compromise patient data and shut down computer systems is on the rise, patients don't seem to be, according to a new report by cybersecurity company Armis. In fact, over 60 percent of people in the general public surveyed in the new report said they hadn't heard of any cyberattacks in healthcare in the past two years.
That's despite a doubling of cyberattacks on healthcare institutions in 2020, high-profile incidents like the attack on hospital chain Universal Health Services, and a major threat from groups using the ransomware Ryuk. The magnitude of attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic shocked experts, who said that ransomware gangs were targeting hospitals more aggressively than they had before. Unlike attacks on banks or schools, which are also common, these attacks have the potential to directly injure people.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Wednesday November 17 2021, @08:48PM (2 children)
Is this more the work of individual groups or do they have some external backing? Also, are the ones in (e.g.) socialized medicine countries being attacked too?
Going *way* out on a limb here, it could appear that medical care establishments in a country that doesn't socialize medicine, could make them look more like private businesses [youtu.be], perhaps making them a more apparently reasonable target.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Thursday November 18 2021, @12:40AM (1 child)
In the United States, “medical care establishments” ARE private *for profit* businesses.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday November 18 2021, @04:39AM
Hence my question about whether this is happening to medical institutions in countries with socialized medical care.