75% Healthcare Orgs Suffer Data Encryption in Ransomware: Sophos Survey

In a recent survey by Sophos, it was revealed that nearly 75% of healthcare organizations experienced successful data encryption in ransomware attacks.

This marks a significant increase from the previous year’s 61%. Moreover, only 24% of healthcare organizations managed to disrupt ransomware attacks before their data was encrypted, representing a decline from 34% in the prior year. Compromised credentials were the leading cause of ransomware attacks in the healthcare sector, followed by exploits.

Additionally, 37% of ransomware attacks that successfully encrypt data also involve data theft. Despite the growing threat, the percentage of healthcare organizations paying ransom payments decreased from 61% to 42%.

Healthcare orgs: Best practices vs ransomware

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Sophos recommends the following best practices to help defend against ransomware and other cyberattacks:

• Strengthen defensive shields with: • Security tools that defend against the most common attack vectors, including endpoint protection with strong anti-ransomware and anti-exploit capabilities

• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) to thwart the abuse of compromised credentials

• Adaptive technologies that respond automatically to attacks, disrupting adversaries and buying defenders time to respond

• 24/7 threat detection, investigation and response, whether delivered in-house or by a specialized Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider

• Optimize attack preparation, including regularly backing up, practicing recovering data from backups and maintaining an up-to-date incident response plan

• Maintain security hygiene, including timely patching and regularly reviewing security tool configurations