Healthcare IT: The Human Toll of Ransomware

Healthcare IT managers have their hands more than full as they defend their organizations’ systems and data against cyber attacks and ransomware. And while the financial impact of ransomware attacks is becoming clearer, managers also must keep in mind the human toll these attacks pose.

With the healthcare sector experiencing a constant rise in cyber attacks, the potential health impact of getting caught in the crossfire of a ransomware attack is now an increasingly frightening prospect for a significant number of healthcare consumers, according to Security Boulevard. Hospitals are vulnerable, and every successful attack triggers declines in care far beyond the immediate financial impact. The rise in ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations makes a fatality almost a terrifying inevitability.

Connected devices and monitors allow healthcare professionals to provide care to greater numbers of individuals, but this technological transformation has a downside — increased vulnerability to ransomware.