Medicine pays the price in ransomware attacks
Facts at your fingertips
By Emily Margosian, assistant editor, July 1, 2020
As health care becomes increasingly digitized, ransomware attacks seeking valuable patient records have accelerated, resulting in enormous costs. According to a 2020 Comparitech report, U.S. health care organizations spent over $160 million in ransomware recovery costs from 2016 to 2019, with over 6.65 million patient records compromised. The report utilized data collected through the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) reporting tool, acknowledging that true numbers are likely much higher, as HHS only collects information from data breaches impacting 500 patients or more.
The report also revealed key information on how individual states have borne the brunt of ransomware activity in their local systems. California experienced the most financial damage from ransomware attacks, with resulting costs of up to $35 million. Texas sustained the second-highest amount of damage, at $19.6 million. The report also found that attackers varied widely in their demanded ransom amounts. Tracked incidents could range from $1,600 per data breach up to $14 million. To see which health care organizations were most impacted by ransomware attacks, see the chart below.
