“The costs of recovering from a 2021 ransomware attack were too much for St. Margaret’s Health in Spring Valley, Illinois, which is closing today.”
The article has useful analysis of the general vulnerabilities of hospitals, including disruptions of insurance billing systems. Experts believe ransomware and similar attacks could negatively impact the health or even lives of patients, generating substantial legal liability.
Small and/or rural hospitals are especially at risk due to small IT teams and limited funds for insurance.
“For some, affording enough cyber insurance to mitigate the financial risk can be challenging, Rob Rosenzweig, a senior vice president and the National Cyber Risk practice leader at brokerage firm Risk Strategies, told Axios. ‘There’s a threshold where even what might be the right amount of insurance to help you manage what may be a catastrophic loss is unfortunately not commercially viable given the cost and budgetary constraints might be,’ he said.”
Read the article here.