Nearly 50 million people in the U.S. had their health data breached in 2021, triple the number that did three years earlier, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., testified at a May 18 hearing on healthcare and education cybersecurity, according to a news release from the senator.
“As a doctor, I cannot express enough the importance of timeliness in care,” the senator said. “Cyberattacks that delay that care cost American lives, especially during a pandemic.”
He also pointed to the increasing costs to the healthcare system generated by hacking incidents. An example is the October 2020 cyberattack on Universal Health Services that cost the system $67 million.
He said partnerships with the private sector and better cooperation among federal agencies are keys to counteracting the threat.
