The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
has reported that threat actors have accessed sensitive health data of tens of millions of American patients this year.
The HHS reported a significant increase in “large breaches” and ransomware incidents to its Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
By infosecbulletin
/ Sunday , June 1 2025
A hacker known as "303" claim to breach the company's systems and leaked sensitive internal data on a dark web...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Sunday , June 1 2025
CISA and ACSC issued new guidance this week on how to procure, implement, and maintain SIEM and SOAR platforms. SIEM...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Saturday , May 31 2025
The Qualys Threat Research Unit (TRU) found two local information-disclosure vulnerabilities in Apport and systemd-coredump. Both issues are race-condition vulnerabilities....
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Saturday , May 31 2025
New ransomware payment reporting rules take effect in Australia yesterday (May 30) for all organisations with an annual turnover of...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Saturday , May 31 2025
Global makers of surveillance gear have clashed with Indian regulators in recent weeks over contentious new security rules that require...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Thursday , May 29 2025
GreyNoise has discovered a campaign where attackers have gained unauthorized access to thousands of internet-exposed ASUS routers. This seems to...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Wednesday , May 28 2025
The rise of online gambling in the country is leading to increased crime and societal issues. In response, the central...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Wednesday , May 28 2025
Cybersecurity researchers recently revealed a coordinated cloud-based scanning attack that targeted 75 different exposure points earlier this month. On May...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Monday , May 26 2025
Recent security research has shown that attackers can weaken zero-trust security frameworks by exploiting a key DNS vulnerability, disrupting automated...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Saturday , May 24 2025
Evaly, a Bangladeshi e-commerce platform, is reportedly facing a major data breach that may have exposed sensitive information of around...
Read More
In 2023, there were more breaches compared to the previous year. Over 88 million individuals were affected, which is a 60% increase. According to the HHS, hacking was responsible for 77% of these breaches.
It’s unclear from the statement how many breaches stemmed from ransomware incidents this year, although it would appear to be a key driver.
ALSO READ:
“Bonk police” secure first place CTFBD at MIST
“Ransomware attacks are increasingly common and targeting the healthcare system. This leaves hospitals and their patients vulnerable to data and security breaches.” said OCR director, Melanie Fontes Rainer.
“In this ever-evolving space, it is critical that our healthcare system take steps to identify and address cybersecurity vulnerabilities along with proactively and regularly review risks, records, and update policies. These practices should happen regularly across an enterprise to prevent future attacks.”
A recent report by Sophos showed that 60% of healthcare organizations surveyed had experienced a ransomware breach in the past year. This is a slight decrease compared to 2022 when the number was 66%. However, in 75% of these incidents, the data was successfully encrypted. Healthcare organizations were only able to stop an attack before data encryption in 25% of cases, which is lower than the previous year’s 34%.
Ransomware attacks pose a serious threat to health and safety, according to Jan Lovmand, CTO of BullWall.
“These attacks not only disrupt the delivery of essential medical services, postponing critical surgeries and treatments and putting patients’ lives at risk, but also compromise the security of sensitive patient information,” he added.
“Hospitals and healthcare organizations are particularly attractive targets for cybercriminals, and their reliance on technology to manage everything from patient records to surgical equipment makes them uniquely vulnerable. This is compounded by their limited resources to invest in cybersecurity measures.”