560 Healthcare Providers Fell Victim to Ransomware Attacks in 2020
Health IT Security
Jessica Davis
In the midst of responding to COVID-19, the healthcare sector faced a significant number of ransomware attacks in 2020 with 560 healthcare provider facilities falling victim to the malware variant, according to the latest Emsisoft State of Ransomware report.
The last quarter of 2019 saw an unprecedented number of ransomware incidents in the healthcare sector. And while the number of reported successful attacks petered off during the first half of 2020, those numbers drastically increased through a coordinated ransomware wave that began in September.
Overall, Emsisoft data shows at least 2,354 US government, healthcare, and schools were impacted by ransomware attacks in 2020.
The education sector saw the greatest number of successful attacks with 1,681 schools, colleges, and universities impacted by the threat. Federal, state, and municipal governments and agencies reported 113 successful attacks.
The second half of the year saw some of the greatest impact from ransomware, with a host of healthcare ransomware victims were...