Security News > 2023 > November > Healthcare’s road to redefining cybersecurity with modern solutions

The rate of data encryption following a ransomware attack in healthcare was the highest in the last three years, according to Sophos.

Only 24% of healthcare organizations were able to disrupt a ransomware attack before the attackers encrypted their data-down from 34% in 2022; this is the lowest rate of disruption reported by the sector over the past three years.

"To me, the percentage of organizations that successfully stop an attack before encryption is a strong indicator of security maturity. For the healthcare sector this number is quite low-only 24%. What's more, this number is declining, which suggests the sector is actively losing ground against cyberattackers and is increasingly unable to detect and stop an attack in progress," said Chester Wisniewski, director, field CTO, Sophos.

The overall number of ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations surveyed declined from 66% in 2022 to 60% this year.

Compromised credentials were the number one root cause of ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations, followed by exploits.

This is lower than the cross-sector average of 46%. "In 2016, the Red Cross Hospital of Córdoba in Spain suffered a ransomware attack that reached servers and encrypted hundreds of files, medical records and other important patient information. It was a major disruption to our operations and interfered with our ability to care for our patients. The stakes are high in ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations-and attackers know that-meaning we'll always be a target," said Christopher Wray, FBI Director.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/11/03/healthcare-ransomware-data-encryption/