Cybersecurity news for hospitals and health systems

Data breaches can have long-term financial consequences on healthcare organizations, a Frost Radar report finds.

Cyberattacks on the healthcare industry have surged, with ransomware as the biggest threat, a Feb. 24 IBM report finds.

Cyberattacks have seen great success, profiting millions of dollars by expanding their attack chain and exploiting vulnerabilities brought on by COVID-19, a Feb. 24 IBM report finds.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert Feb. 24 to medical, finance, telecommunications and government organizations about several unpatched vulnerabilities in Accellion's File Transfer Appliance that hackers have taken advantage of. 

Covenant HealthCare has confirmed that an unauthorized individual gained access to two employees' email accounts, potentially exposing about 45,000 patients' information.

Cyberattacks increased significantly in 2020, largely driven by a jump in attempts to extort healthcare organizations and acquire information related to COVID-19, according to a recent Crowdstrike report.

Scams involving the COVID-19 vaccine are growing in the U.S., as scammers seek to exploit personal information or money from consumers researching how to get the vaccine, according to an article published Feb. 23 in The Wall Street Journal.

Jeffrey Parker, who falsely portrayed himself as a whistleblower and framed a Georgia hospital employee of violating HIPAA, was sentenced to six months in federal prison, according to a Feb. 23 Effingham Herald report.

St. Margaret’s Health–Spring Valley (Ill.) has shut down its computer network in response to a cyberattack Feb. 21, Shaw Local News Tribune reports. 

Hospital data breaches increased nationwide in 2020, affecting around 26.4 million people in the U.S., according to a study published Feb. 19 by cloud security platform Bitglass.