Malwarebytes recently released a statement claiming that ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations (HCO) has increased by 60% since 2018. HCOs are increasingly the targets of attack due to the large number of endpoints and connected devices within the HCO networks, offering an extensive attack surface. Cybersecurity in HCOs are typically an afterthought and therefore are more attainable targets.
Trojan malware is the most popular, and Emotet and Trickbot are commonly utilized to access secure data through dropping ransomware payloads. The use of Trojan malware has increased over 82% between Q2 and Q3, and threat detections grew 45% over the same period. Last week, a report claimed that data breaches in hospitals negatively affected patient health, stating that it has lead to an increase in the 30-day mortality rate for heart attacks and ultimately resulting in 36 additional deaths per 10,000 hearth attacks. Experts warned that HCO ransomware attacks may continue to have short term negative consequences for patients.
