Healthcare under siege: Defending hospitals from ransomware threats

Healthcare under siege: Defending hospitals from ransomware threats 
Cylera; by Maureen Sahualla; 1/22/25 
Hospitals today are very concerned about ransomware attacks - and rightly so. A recent research report from Comparitech, Ransomware Roundup: 2024 End-of-Year Report (published on January 9th, 2025) found:

• 181 confirmed (and counting) ransomware attacks in the healthcare sector in 2024.
• 25.6 million healthcare records were affected.
• The average ransom demand in the healthcare sector was $5.7 million.
• The average ransom paid was $900,000.
• There were also a further 42 confirmed attacks on healthcare organizations that do not provide direct care, involving 115,640,362 compromised records and an average ransom demand of $16.3 million.

The report also notes that many confirmed reports come through months - and in some cases, years - after the attack, so 2024 figures will continue to rise in the coming months.