The Latest Threat Hurting Healthcare Organizations: Ransomware

The past year – especially during the height of the pandemic - has been particularly tough on the healthcare industry, which saw a surge in virus-related health cases and ransomware attacks. With the global pandemic already causing strain on health systems, opportunistic cybercriminals took advantage by routinely targeting hospitals, vaccine research labs, vaccine cold storage units, and delivery supply chains to hold critical and private patient data as ransom.

A significant percentage of healthcare organizations still regularly use outdated operating systems or do not update firmware on connected medical devices for reasons including privacy and security concerns. This oversight creates another massive vulnerability, leaving the door wide open for bad actors to penetrate a health organization’s network undeterred. Healthcare facilities can minimize risk by regularly patching all connected devices when updates are available and implementing the latest version of a respective operating system to devices across the framework. This will help ensure organizations take advantage of the newest manufacturer security updates and controls.