It has been quite frankly a terrible week for those across the healthcare sector. Multiple different healthcare organizations have suffered ransomware attacks, each with widespread ramifications. This occurs when attackers lock up sensitive data and hold it hostage until the organization pays a ransom.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has reported a 264% increase in ransomware incidents reported to them over the past five years. With the sheer amount of data that healthcare companies are tasked with collecting and storing, as well as the frequently sensitive nature of this data, this is unsurprising. This data makes healthcare organizations a prime target for extortion, and hackers have absolutely been taking advantage of this.
