In a recent report published on Wednesday by research conducted by Proofpoint, an email security company, around 90% of healthcare organizations have experienced at least one cybersecurity incident in the past year.
In the past two years, more than half of the healthcare organizations have reported to have experienced an average of four ransomware attacks. 68% of the organizations surveyed noted that the attacks “negatively impacted patient safety and care.”
The aforementioned report conducted by Proofpoint includes a survey of more than 650 IT and cybersecurity professionals in the US healthcare sector, highlighting the healthcare sector's ongoing susceptibility to common attack methods. It occurs as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency works to provide greater assistance to small, rural hospitals that are underfunded and wilting under constant cyberattacks.
As healthcare organizations struggle to find alternatives to their outdated technology so they can keep providing services, these efforts are using up more and more of their resources. Between 2022 and 2023, the cost of the time spent minimizing the attacks' consequences on patient care rose by 50%, from around $660,000 to $1 million.
In the case of ransomware assault in hospital systems, where computer networks shut down, the impact is rapid and extensive.
Stephen Leffler, president and chief operating officer of the University of Vermont Medical Center, spoke about how a ransomware assault in October 2020 brought about a catastrophe at his facility during a congressional hearing in September. For 28 days, senior physicians had to train junior physicians on how to use paper records as the National Guard assisted the IT department in a round-the-clock operation to wipe and reconfigure every computer in the network.
Leffler remarked, "We literally went to Best Buy and bought every walkie-talkie they had." This was due to their internet-based phone system being offline. Between 2022 and 2023, the cost of patient care grew by 50%, from about $660,000 to $1 million.
Leffler, who has been an emergency medicine doctor for 30 years, further commented “I've been a hospital president for four years. The cyberattack was much harder than the pandemic by far.”