As cyberattacks become more common, hospitals and health systems should not only be worried about the loss of data, but also the possible loss of life, according to the World Economic Forum's 2020 Global Risk Report and cited by Yahoo Finance.
The report was developed by Marsh & McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group. Researchers found that cybersecurity attacks within the healthcare industry and other markets is the fifth biggest global economic risk in 2020 behind risks like economic confrontations, political polarization, heat waves and destruction of ecosystems.
"What we've seen in the past are really thefts of data in the form of data being stolen, your social security numbers, your credit card numbers, or data being held hostage in the form of ransomware," said Peter Bashar, general counsel at Marsh & McLennan, to Yahoo Finance.
"But really the emerging threat, what experts are particularly concerned about, is the idea that you can manipulate the controls of nuclear facilities, chemical plants, telecommunication networks, and that that could morph from the digital realm really into the physical realm, so that you went from a loss of data to a loss of life."
To prevent cyberattacks, hospitals and health systems should consider implementing different artificial intelligence and quantum computing.