Increasing ransomware attacks are healthcare's new 'pandemic'

Ransomware attacks targeting the healthcare industry have increased by 94 percent in the last year as patient data is used by hackers to commit fraud and identity theft, VentureBeat reported Sept. 6. 

Six things to know:

1. Healthcare providers have become prime targets for ransomware attacks as health systems spend less than 10 percent of their IT budgets on cybersecurity.
   
   
2. So far, healthcare entities have reported 368 breaches to the HHS.
   
   
3. These breaches have affected about 25.1 million patients.
   
   
4. From the reported breaches, 206 have been compromised due to malware, while 95 started with email phishing and credential abuse. 
   
   
5. As ransomware-as-a-service becomes increasingly sophisticated, healthcare organizations could be prone to repeated attacks, according to the report.
   
   
6. The most active ransomware groups targeting the healthcare sector are BlackCat, Conti, Hive, LockBit and SunCrypt.