By By Dan Hounsell

The effects on healthcare systems from increased cyber attacks in the last year have been well documented. An unauthorized individual gained access to two employees' email accounts of one healthcare system, potentially exposing about 45,000 patients' information. A ransomware attack on a second provider’s care sites for three weeks last year resulted in a loss of about $67 million. But what impact are increased attacks having on the way the public views healthcare providers?

A new Morphisec report, Consumer Healthcare Cybersecurity: Threat Index, finds that about 20 percent of Americans have a healthcare provider that has been affected by cyber attacks in the last year, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. Consumers said this could influence them to change providers.

The report surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. consumers in January to gauge how they view cyber threats in the healthcare sector. Among the key takeaways for healthcare providers:

• Twenty percent of Americans had a healthcare provider affected by cyberattacks in the previous 12 months, compared to 21 percent in 2020 and six percent in 2019.

• Sixty-one percent of consumers said they are more worried about ransomware taking their healthcare provider offline and affecting their care than they were last year.