The report highlighted ransomware attacks published by HHS that affected more than 500 people. Data breaches affecting fewer than 500 people were included if the breach was reported elsewhere, a limitation the researchers said “only scratch[es] the surface of the problem.”
Six things to know about the report findings:
- Ransomware attacks cost healthcare organizations about $20.8 billion in lawsuits, ransom paid, lost revenue, fees to rebuild lost data and more.
- Almost 50 percent of Maine’s population was affected by ransomware attacks in 2020. Michigan had the second-highest population affected, with nearly 45 percent.
- Eighteen million patient records were affected nationally, a 470 percent increase from 2019.
- California had12 percent of the ransomware attacks nationally, reporting 11 individual attacks, followed by Florida (eight), New York (six) and Texas (five).
- Michigan had 3.37 million patient records affected by ransomware attacks. The second-highest number of patient records was in Arizona, with more than $2 million records affected.
- The University of California San Francisco School of Medicine paid $1.14 million to NetWalker, a strain of ransomware that attacks Microsoft-based systems, to regain access to its data in June.
To read the full report, click here.
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