Rural hospitals can be hit hardest by a ransomware attack Urban hospitals are more likely than rural hospitals to suffer such an attack But patients must drive longer to reach alternative care FRIDAY, Aug. 30, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Rural hospitals – and their patients -- are particularly vulnerable to the aftershocks caused by ransomware attacks, a new study reports. “Ransomware attacks are bad news for hospitals and patients no matter where they happen, but they’re especially harmful to rural hospitals and patients,” lead researcher Hannah Neprash , an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, said in a news release.
Overall, ransomware attacks have more than doubled in the past five years, researchers said. These attacks are more likely to occur in urban areas, they noted. For example, in May a cyberattack disrupted operations at Ascension, a major St.
Louis-based health care system with 140 hospitals in 19 states. That attack followed a May ransomware assault on a subsidiary of health care giant UnitedHealth Group that disrupted billing at pharmacies nationwide and compromised the personal data of up to a third of Americans. The company wound up forking over $22 million to the cybercriminals.
But an attack on rural hospitals can have more pronounced effects, as those facilities are often financially vulnerable and serve older, poorer patients with worse health, researchers noted. For the study, researchers gathered data on 43 ru.