By Dan Hounsell

For all the trials and tribulations of the last year in healthcare IT, the future looks even more challenging when it comes to ransomware attacks.

Sixty-three percent of healthcare organizations that weren’t impacted by ransomware last year expect to be the target of a ransomware attack in the future, according to Health IT Security. Approximately one-third of surveyed healthcare organizations were impacted by ransomware in the last year alone.

Despite the fact that 560 healthcare providers experienced a ransomware attack in 2020, the survey found that the number of attacks on the healthcare sector fell below the global average across all sectors. Retail and education sectors experienced the most ransomware attacks with 44 percent of survey respondents being impacted.

The survey noted that “many attackers have moved from larger scale, generic, automated attacks to more targeted attacks that include human-operated, hands-on-keyboard hacking. While the overall number of attacks is lower, our experience shows that the potential for damage from these targeted attacks is much higher.”