Cyber attacks in healthcare – here’s the deadly war the world doesn’t talk about, yet

Amore silent war has been going on for quite a while, under our radar. It is not televised, and images of ruin and human suffering have not yet surfaced, its soldiers and weapons unseen.

And yet, it’s very dangerous, affecting more and more people around the world- millions at a time, to be exact.

Cyber warfare has become one of the most dangerous means of war, in accordance with the technological advances of our time. Countries and governments, or hacker groups who act in their name, carry out such attacks cheaply and discreetly.

As more and more aspects of our lives become digitalised, the impact cyber-attacks have on us simultaneously increases. Worryingly enough, the healthcare sector is hit hardest, as it can kill. It’s no more about data breaches, it’s about human lives.

2023 has been the worst year ever recorded globally for cyberattacks aimed at healthcare organisations, with no less than 116 million human beings affected in the US only, this being more than double than in 2022, and many more worldwide! Just to name a few; 7 million patients of Delta Dental of California were warned their data was stolen and possibly manipulated in June 2023.

In Seattle’s Fred Hutch cancer centre, some 800,000 people’s data was stolen and access disabled, and a ransom of $50 per patient was demanded for the removal of a single person’s details. In May 2023, 2.5 million patients of Louisville’s Norton Healthcare were also victims of a similar attack.