Healthcare Sector Sees Spike in Cyberattacks

Healthcare organizations experienced 32% more malware attacks between 2023 and 2024, which is the highest gain across all sectors, SC Media reports.

In terms of ransomware targeting, healthcare was subjected to 10% of ransomware intrusions over the same period, only surpassed by the manufacturing and technical services sectors, according to research from security firm Black Kite.

Despite improving security evaluation scores, Black Kite researchers noted that healthcare is often a prime ransomware target due to the exposure of the sector's vulnerabilities following last year's widespread Change Healthcare attack. In addition, the emergence of new ransomware operations that no longer consider attacks against the industry to be off-limits.

Additional findings revealed the growing prevalence of supply chain and system-embedded malware payloads and increasingly aggressive extortion tactics across all industries.

"This shift in both tactics and target criteria has made ransomware attacks more frequent, unpredictable, and strategically devastating, creating new challenges for industries, especially healthcare," said Black Kite.