Much like the rest of the world, healthcare organizations are shifting work to cloud services in order to improve accessibility and patient care. However, the migration of these workloads and moving valuable information such as PHI (personal health information) and PII (personally identifiable information) to the cloud has also led to cybercriminals taking a particular interest in the industry.
The number of ransomware and other malware attacks is rising incredibly fast in the healthcare industry, putting human lives as well as critical data at risk. From 2011 through 2014, the sector — including hospitals, labs, pharmacies, drug companies and outpatient clinics — experienced the highest number of data breaches of all industries. What makes these organizations such a popular target?