When one hospital gets ransomware, others feel the pain

When a healthcare organization is hit by ransomware, the crisis extends far beyond the initially targeted institution. The chaos and confusion that arise when systems and applications are offline are bad enough for the victim organization, but surrounding hospitals and entities often have to deal with the spillover effects, as well. Diverted ambulances drop off patients at their emergency doors. Unscheduled walk-ins increase. Patient volume overall can reach unmanageable heights, especially for organizations working with limited resources and tight funding.

“It’s not like a natural disaster where after a few days you could be over the hump and back in recovery mode,” Paul Connelly, faculty at IANS Research and independent director at Fortified Health Security, tells Dark Reading. “In some cases, like Ascension, it was four weeks without systems. So everyone is being worked to death trying to pick up the slack — the whole community, not just that hospital that’s hit.” 

Ransomware is disruptive regardless of industry sector or type of organization, but the impact on healthcare organizations is especially acute because it can block access to critical systems and prevent patients from receiving vital — even life-saving — care.

Read more at Dark Reading