Hackers seem to have turned their focus on the healthcare sector. The latest survey finds that the number of ransomware attacks on healthcare organisations has gone up by nearly 100 per cent in one year.
The data that healthcare organisations harness is extremely sensitive and valuable, making it very attractive to attackers.
“About 66 per cent of healthcare organisations were hit in 2021 as against 34 per cent in the previous year,” the State of Ransomware in Healthcare 2022 report, compiled by cybersecurity solutions company Sophos, said.
The survey covered 5,600 IT professionals, including 381 healthcare respondents, in mid-sized organisations (with 100-5,000 employees) in 31 countries.
However, the good news is that healthcare organisations are better equipped to deal with the post-attack situation than they were a year ago.
“The report shows that 99 per cent of the victim organisations were able to get at least some their data back after cybercriminals encrypted it during the attacks,” it said.
Recovery costs
On an average, healthcare organisations spent about $1.85 million to recover from the attack. It was found that it took at least a week to recover from the attack.
While healthcare organisations often pay ransom, they’re paying the lowest average ransoms, $197,000, compared with the global average of $8,12,000 across all sectors in the survey.
Of those organisations that paid the ransom, only 2 per cent got all their data back.
“About 67 per cent of healthcare organisations think that cyberattacks are more complex, based on their experience of how cyberattacks changed over the last year,” it said.
“Ransomware in the healthcare space is more nuanced than other industries in terms of both protection and recovery,” John Shier, a senior security expert at Sophos, said.
The increase in the number of attacks is forcing the healthcare organisations to go for insurance. Over 78 per cent of the organisations now have taken an insurance cover.