Healthcare cyberattacks are on the rise: Here’s why zero trust will prevent care disruptions

As healthcare organizations continue to evolve digitally, one thing has become clear – patient welfare cannot come first if the digital systems supporting it are threatened. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the frequency of cyberattacks on US hospitals and health systems more than doubled from 2016 to 2021. Research from Check Point Software Technologies confirms this trend, revealing that the healthcare sector experienced an average of 1,684 attacks per week in Q1 2023 – a year-on-year increase of 22%. That makes healthcare the third most targeted industry in 2023, ahead of finance, insurance and communications. These statistics are alarming, but they can be explained. The healthcare sector is a veritable goldmine of data, much of it is managed through easily exploited legacy IT systems. One survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society found that 73% of healthcare provider organizations use legacy IT systems, which are costly to support and often rife with gaps in security.