– According to Interpol, 907,000 spam messages, 737 malware incidents, and 48000 malicious URLs were revealed only from January to April 2020.
– The National Health Service (NHS) lost over $100 million because of the WannaCry ransomware attack
– In 2020 the healthcare industry was affected by at least 1 breach every day caused by ransomware attacks. As a result, more than 27 000 000 patient records were sold by hackers.
– FBI confirmed that in the USA the cybercrime in the healthcare industry rose by 2,473 in 2020, resulting in a $30 000 000 loss.
– According to Check Point Research, cyberattacks on healthcare increased https://oukalandscape.com/ 45% from November to December 2020. As for countries, by the end of 2020, Canada experienced a 250% rise in cyberattacks targeting the healthcare sector, Germany saw a 220% increase.
Cyberattacks in the healthcare industry are nothing new, hackers have always been attracted by the possibility of stealing and selling valuable data. Why was the healthcare sector hit especially hard in 2020?
1. Patients’ Personal Data; Health System Collapse
As stated above, private data is the main reason for cyber-attacks. The health records contain the most detailed and important personal data possible: addresses and phone numbers, social security numbers, even information on health habits.
Personal data can be sold and resold many times by multiple cyber-criminals.Moreover, the healthcare industry was significantly overloaded because of the COVID-19 situation. Any interruption or failure could be fatal. As a result, in case of ransomware attacks, hospitals would be more willing to pay a high ransom, in order to restore the system as soon as possible and to continue providing emergency medical assistance without interruption.
