Study: Frequent Cyber Attacks in Healthcare Impact Patient Care

Cynerio, a New York-based provider of healthcare IoT cybersecurity, has released a report conducted in partnership with the Ponemon Institute that details multiple alarming healthcare security trends including widespread and repeated attacks, financial losses measured in the millions, and frequent failures to take basic cybersecurity measures.

Among the key findings:

• 43% of hospitals experienced at least one ransomware attack, and 24% of attacks resulted in increased mortality rates.
• 56% of respondents stated their organizations experienced one or more cyberattacks in the past 24 months involving IoMT/IoT devices. Among those, 58% averaged 9 or more cyberattacks during that time.
• 45% of these respondents report adverse impacts on patient care, and 53% percent of those report adverse impacts resulting in increased mortality rates.
• 71% of respondents rated the security risks presented by IoT/IoMT devices as high or very high, while only 21% report a mature stage of proactive security actions.
• Of the 46% who performed well-known and accepted procedures such as scanning for devices, only 33% of these respondents keep an inventory of the devices that were discovered.
• 47% of those experiencing an attack resulted in a ransom being paid. 32% of the ransoms paid fell in the range of $250k – $500k.

“It’s clear that cyberattackers have increasingly focused their efforts on hospitals since 2020,” said Chad Holmes, Security Evangelist at Cynerio. “What had been unclear was the frequency and resulting damage of their attacks.”

The Insecurity of Connected Devices in HealthCare 2022 Report surveyed experts in leadership positions at 517 healthcare systems throughout the United States.

Channel Impact^®
The data continue to demonstrate the role that channel partners can play in advancing security in the healthcare sector.