Cybersecurity

Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital has agreed to pay $6.8 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from a data breach that compromised the personal information of about 2.1 million individuals, Top Class Action reported Jan. 3.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, Mass., and its parent organization, Boston-based Beth Israel Lahey Health, over a December 2023 data breach that exposed the personal and medical information of 316,342 patients.

A data breach at Staten Island, N.Y.-based Richmond University Medical Center has potentially exposed sensitive personal and health information of 674,033 individuals.

Healthcare organizations are ramping up their cybersecurity defenses, with a growing focus on third-party risk management, network security and proactive infrastructure improvements, a Jan. 2 report from KLAS found.

Watsonville Community Hospital in California has fully restored access to its IT network after a cyberattack in late November forced the facility to adopt downtime procedures.

Staffing shortages have been identified as the top cybersecurity challenge facing healthcare organizations, a Jan. 2 report from KLAS found.

El Paso, Texas-based Las Palmas Del Sol Healthcare has revealed that patient records were inappropriately accessed and potentially disclosed by a former employee over a two-year period, from Jan. 1, 2018, to March 12, 2021.

Hackers targeted healthcare organizations with ransom demands ranging from $4,000 to $10 million, according to Comparitech.

Ransomware attacks have imposed significant financial burdens on U.S. healthcare providers, with an estimated $21.9 billion lost to downtime alone since 2018, according to Comparitech.com.

Healthcare continued to be plagued by hackers and data leaks in 2024, with the industry experiencing its largest-ever cyberattack in February.