A Microsoft investigation published earlier this week revealed that ransomware attacks on the healthcare sector are rising and threatening lives.
The report, which uses both internal corporate data and external data, shows a 300% spike in ransomware attacks on the health sector since 2015, as well as an increase in stroke and cardiac arrest cases at hospitals receiving patients from nearby facilities that have been paralysed by similar assaults.
It all amounts to a worrisome pattern that began during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when certain ransomware gangs pledged not to attack the healthcare industry.
“That [pledge has] been shoved off the table, unfortunately, and we are seeing a broader targeting of everything that has to do with health care, from hospital systems to clinics to doctors’ offices — really, anything where patient care can be impacted,” Sherrod DeGrippo, director of threat intelligence strategy at Microsoft, stated. “Threat actors know people’s lives are at stake, and therefore the organization is more likely to pay.”
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