What does that mean exactly? What are the effects of cyberattacks - both for the hospital and patients?
Föller-Nord: Unfortunately, this type of attack can fully cripple a hospital, especially when data on hard drives is being encrypted. In other words, neither the hospital admission procedures nor the diagnostic and treatment processes can be carried out. Not only does this translate into financial losses, but it is also damaging to a hospital's reputation, which in turn has a major financial impact. Meanwhile, patients tend to be more indirectly affected by the attack. Having said that, if a hospital is no longer able to admit emergency cases, it will obviously directly harm those patients that are in dire need of treatment. The same applies to surgeries that can no longer be performed because the network is down. Having said that, if the attack specifically targets an insulin pump or a pacemaker, it directly puts lives at risk. If the function of devices is compromised, it can physically harm patients to the point of death. However, the high cost of attacking one person is not proportional to the minor benefits yielded from this type of attack.
Normally, the attack targets the hospital infrastructure. And this is where hospitals are indeed at high risk. According to a survey by the Hessian state government, every fourth hospital has fallen victim to cyberattacks over the past two years. One study by a management consulting firm actually indicates that 64 percent of all hospitals have been attacked at one point or another. What’s more, there is a percentage of unreported cases, because the attack was either detected too late or not at all or hospitals simply chose not to publicize an attack. Based on this information, we can assume that hospitals everywhere are being attacked on a weekly basis.