A survey released in January of this year reveals that 73% of the world's healthcare organizations have already suffered an attempted ransomware attack.

The survey was conducted with 2980 IT security professionals from 877 organizations by Black Book and brought up worrying data about IT in the health area: 73% of participating organizations have already been hit by ransomware at some point. In addition, 86% of healthcare IT leaders believe attackers are outperforming their companies and don't feel so secure anymore.

Why does healthcare suffers so many ransomware attacks

The reason is not always just the obvious: retaining important health data so that they pay the ransom and avoid interruptions of devices, systems, etc. The truth is, that healthcare data is highly valued on the dark web. Some hackers target medical records and patient information. So, in the end, you can sell them and profit from them.

How a ransomware attack impacts healthcare

Security incidents in the healthcare industry can:

- Disable IT systems;
- Block access to patient records;
- Interrupt the operation of networked medical devices;
- Disable third-party services, disrupting the drug and supply chain.

This puts the lives of patients at stake, after all, it is not always just a prescription for a drug that disappears from the system, with systems down, like what happened in 2017 with some NHS hospitals, even surgeries can be cancelled or postponed.

If you are part of the health area, don't let this happen to you! Contact us today and learn about our solutions to ransomware attacks.