Hospitals are vulnerable to cyberattacks

The recent ransomware attack on the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles has spooked the healthcare community. Hackers installed *ransomware in the hospital computer system and held patient records hostage while demanding payment. The hospital eventually paid $17,000 to have their files unlocked.

Attacks on major insurance and healthcare systems last year including Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and Anthem Inc. resulted in 100 million individual records being stolen.

Electronic medical records are a treasure trove of data and fetch a price 20 times more than that a stolen credit card numbers. The cost for the U.S. healthcare industry is $6 billion dollars annually, with the average data breach costing a hospital $2.1 million.