Cyberattacks against U.S. hospitals mean higher mortality rates, study finds

Cyberattacks against health care facilities, a near-constant occurrence in the U.S., often lead to increased patient mortality rates, a new study has found.

Cyberattacks against health care facilities, a near-constant occurrence in the U.S., often lead to increased patient mortality rates, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by the Ponemon Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, interviewed more than 600 information technology professionals across more than 100 health care facilities. Its findings are some of the most concrete evidence to date that the steady drumbeat of hackers attacking American medical centers leads to patients’ receiving worse care and being more likely to die.

Two-thirds of respondents in the Ponemon study who had experienced ransomware attacks said they disrupted patient care, and 59% of them found they increased the length of patients’ stays, straining resources. Almost one-quarter said they led to increased mortality rates at their facilities.

In a ransomware attack, hackers gain access to an organization’s computer networks, lock up its and often its data and demand payment. They have become a scourge for the health care industry in recent years. Hospitals don’t always publicize when they’ve been victims; documented attacks, however, have increased every year since 2018, culminating in 297 known attacks last year, according to a survey the cybersecurity company Recorded Future provided to NBC News.

There have been at least 12 ransomware attacks on health care facilities in the U.S. this year, said Brett Callow, an analyst at the ransomware company Emsisoft. But because some health care companies represent multiple locations, those attacks accounted for 56 different facilities, he said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/cyberattacks-us-hospitals-mean-higher-mortality-rates-study-finds-rcna46697


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