U.S. hospitals were targeted by two cybersecurity attacks this fall. The first took down universal health services, a chain of hundreds of hospitals. The second by a group called unc1878 threatening hundreds of individual health care facilities.

‘it crosses a line that the entire cybersecurity community just did n’t think was going to get crossed anytime soon,’ says cynergistek, CEO of cybersecurity consulting firm cynergistek.’we have n’t seen an incident of magnitude that actually has the potential to harm people, literally all the way up to the point of death,’ he says.

A piece of ransomware is sent out generally and happens to get into a hospital. The United Kingdom’s national health service (NHS) in the spring of 2017 when the wannacry cyberattack hit organizations worldwide. Institutions ca n’t afford to be offline while they try to extricate themselves from ransomware.

‘if you ask any law enforcement agency, they will say, please do n’t pay. You’ll paint a target on your back’.

Attacks on health care facilities doubled in the second half of the year. Most health care institutions are unprepared for cyberattacks. Ransomware has been hitting America’s hospitals heavily over the last few years, and almost always, they pay.

The electronic health records at United health services were n’t directly affected, and the system was able to get back up and running in a few weeks. The second threat, from unc1878, was flagged by federal agencies early enough for many hospitals to prepare. Advance warning may have bought many health care centers enough time to harden their defenses by blocking phishing emails associated with the attack.

‘I hope that what will happen is that people will be prepared, and the warnings will be enough,’ Woodward says.’the warnings are spines.

The attack shut down 80 hospitals across the system, forcing them to divert patients and reschedule regular care. The system had some warning, but it did n’t respond quickly enough quickly enough.

Barlow has spent’every day, every day’ in conversations with leadership at various hospitals around the US, helping them make sure they’re ready to ward off attacks. Hospitals taking those steps have been in good shape, he says, even if the current threat fades, others will pop up up up.

During the pandemic, hospitals will stay a target, Woodward says.’the threat will continue to exist, and the danger will be that people will drop their guard, and they’ll be back,’ he says.