25% of ransomware attacks aimed at healthcare industry, FBI says

By Giles Bruce for Becker’s Hospital Review

The healthcare sector has been hit with 25 percent of ransomware attacks so far in 2022, according to FBI data.

The agency cited the Internet Crime Complaint Center data in a joint warning about a hacker gang targeting hospitals. In 2021, the healthcare and public health sector had the most ransomware reports of any of the 14 critical infrastructure industries, with 148 out of 649, according to IC3.

The nation’s second-largest nonprofit hospital system, CommonSpirit Health, was hit with a ransomware attack in October that has forced EHRs and payroll systems offline at many of its facilities across the country.

Both the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the White House say they plan to make protecting the healthcare industry from hackers a priority moving forward, the Record reported.