Two years after the WannaCry ransomware worm infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the globe within a few days, hospitals in the United Kingdom remain vulnerable to cyberattacks, a new report by the Imperial College London warns.
The WannaCry outbreak cost the National Health Service (NHS) over $100 million and while “awareness of cyberattack risk has significantly increased” since this major incident, the report concludes that further improvement is needed when it comes to cybersecurity awareness and ‘hygiene’ in UK hospitals.
Healthcare organizations represent very attractive targets for cybercriminals due to the large amounts of valuable data they store and the presence of poorly secured legacy systems and medical Internet-of-things (IoT) devices.
Read more: Don’t forget about WannaCry: Hospitals are still at risk of cyberattack