2020 was a bad year for healthcare organizations in the USA, which had to face a high number of incidents in the cybersecurity field against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hacking incidents impacted the industry to a great extent last year, accounting for more than 67% of all breaches and exposing the personal data of tens of millions of people.
Higher number of breaches
The threat protection company Bitglass analyzed data from the US Department of Health and Human Services and found that the number of healthcare breaches reported in 2020 rose to 599, a jump of over 50% compared to the previous year (386).
Most of the breaches were caused by hacking incidents, which exposed the data of 24.1 million people, making them vulnerable to identity theft and phishing attacks.
However, despite the increase in incidents, the total number of those affected is slightly lower compared to 2019.
The breakdown of violations by state shows that California had the highest number of incidents, 49 incidents, with Texas following with 43.
New York with 39 breaches, and Florida and Pennsylvania, each with 38 breaches, are the next ones on the list.
Looking at the states that had the highest number of people affected, Michigan ranks first, mainly due to a single incident in Trinity Health's healthcare delivery system.
According to the Ponemon Institute, breaches affecting healthcare organizations are the most expensive to address and have the longest recovery.
On average, the cost per breach in 2020 was $499 and recovery took about 236 days. Also, the downside is that healthcare institutions take 96 days to detect a breach, more than any other industry
Ransomware attacks
Although the Bitglass report does not analyze the type of hacking incidents, ransomware attacks likely represent a significant proportion.
Maze , Ryuk, REvil (Sodinokibi), SunCrypt , Snake , and Clop are some of the ransomware groups that attacked hospitals and healthcare organizations.
A report from Check Point published earlier this year named Ryuk and REVIL as the top threats to the healthcare sector globally.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
