The Growing Threat of Cyberattacks on Hospitals

Imagine this: A hospital’s entire system suddenly goes dark. Doctors can’t access patient records, life-saving machines stop functioning, and surgeries are put on hold. Chaos unfolds as the staff scrambles to respond, but there’s little they can do. A chilling message appears on the screen—pay the ransom or lose everything. This isn’t a scene from a movie. It’s the harsh reality of modern cyberattacks on healthcare institutions. Hospitals, which are supposed to be safe havens for healing, have become prime targets for cybercriminals looking to exploit vulnerabilities for financial gain. The consequences are catastrophic, ranging from millions of stolen medical records to life-threatening service disruptions.

Why Are Hospitals Such Easy Targets for Hackers?

Hospitals store some of the most valuable data imaginable—patient records filled with personal, financial, and medical details. Unlike a credit card, which can be canceled and replaced, stolen medical records are permanent. This makes them a goldmine for cybercriminals, who can sell them on the dark web for identity theft, insurance fraud, and even blackmail. But it’s not just the data that makes hospitals vulnerable. Many healthcare institutions operate on outdated IT systems, some of which haven’t been updated in years. These systems often lack modern security defenses, giving hackers an easy way in. Add to that the growing use of internet-connected medical devices—from pacemakers to insulin pumps—which create additional entry points for cyberattacks. And let’s not forget the human factor. Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff are focused on saving lives, not on cybersecurity best practices. Phishing emails and weak passwords provide hackers with easy access to hospital networks. The worst part? Cybercriminals know hospitals can’t afford downtime. They exploit this pressure, making healthcare providers more likely to pay ransoms just to get their systems back online.

A Look at Some of the Worst Cyberattacks in Healthcare

The past decade has seen some of the most devastating cyberattacks on hospitals and healthcare providers, affecting millions of patients and costing billions in damages. In 2024, Change Healthcare suffered the largest healthcare data breach in history, exposing a staggering 190 million patient records. To put that into perspective, that’s more than half the population of the United States. Before that, the 2015 Anthem Inc. breach compromised 78.8 million records, making it one of the most infamous healthcare cyberattacks. Similarly, in 2023, Welltok, Inc. was hacked, affecting 14.7 million patients. And the 2024 breach at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan exposed 13.4 million records due to unauthorized access. These aren’t isolated incidents. Between 2009 and 2023, over 5,887 healthcare data breaches were reported, exposing a jaw-dropping 519 million patient records. The frequency of these attacks has doubled in the last five years, from one major healthcare data breach per day in 2018 to nearly two per day in 2023.

This isn’t just a privacy issue—it’s a full-blown crisis.

The Hidden Costs of a Cyberattack on a Hospital

When a hospital is hit by a cyberattack, the damages go far beyond stolen data. The financial impact alone can be devastating. Hospitals face ransom payments, regulatory fines, lawsuits, and the cost of restoring their systems. For large institutions, this can run into the millions. But the real cost? Lives are at stake. Imagine a patient in critical condition needing emergency surgery, but the hospital’s systems are locked. Doctors can’t access medical histories, test results, or prescriptions. Even a few minutes of downtime can mean the difference between life and death.

The effects ripple beyond the hospital walls. Appointments are canceled, surgeries postponed, and emergency rooms thrown into disarray. A single cyberattack can cripple an entire healthcare system for weeks, putting thousands of patients at risk.

The Traditional (Expensive) Way Hospitals Try to Recover

Hospitals understand that downtime isn’t an option. To ensure 99.999% availability—meaning they can’t afford minutes of outage—they traditionally maintain a fully redundant secondary IT system in a failover region. What does this mean? Essentially, hospitals run two identical sets of infrastructure—one primary and one backup. This ensures that if the main system is attacked, they can immediately switch to the backup. Sounds like a solid plan, right?

Here’s the catch: it’s ridiculously expensive. Hospitals must pay double the cost to maintain this redundant infrastructure. Running two fully operational compute environments 24/7 leads to twice the expenses, making this an unsustainable model for many healthcare providers.

A Smarter, More Affordable Way to Recover: Cloudidr

This is where Cloudidr comes in. Instead of forcing hospitals to run two identical systems at double the cost, Cloudidr offers a low-cost cyber recovery compute that allows hospitals to recover within minutes without the financial burden. How does it work? Instead of maintaining an always-on failover region, Cloudidr provides on-demand compute power—activated only when needed. This dramatically reduces costs while ensuring the same 99.999% availability.

For example, we did an analysis for a mid-size hospital system operating 100 instances of m6i.2xl (Linux) in AWS infrastructure. The cost with Cloudidr was $55K versus the customer directly purchasing a 1 Year savings plan at $247K from AWS. This is over 77% savings with Clouddir along with 99.999% of uptime.

With Cloudidr, hospitals:

• Eliminate the need for expensive secondary infrastructure

• Recover within minutes, ensuring minimal disruption

• Save millions in operational costs

• Achieve high availability without running redundant compute 24/7

The cost savings are clear. Traditional failover systems require continuous, high-cost compute resources. In contrast, Cloudidr’s on-demand recovery model provides instant failover at a fraction of the cost.

The Future of Cyber Resilience in Healthcare

The reality is stark—cyberattacks on hospitals aren’t going away. If anything, they’re becoming more frequent, more sophisticated, and more devastating. Hospitals must take proactive steps to defend against these threats. Strengthening cybersecurity defenses is critical, but so is having a reliable and affordable recovery solution. Traditional redundant failover systems are unsustainable for most healthcare institutions. That’s why hospitals need a modern cyber recovery strategy that doesn’t break the bank. Cloudidr offers exactly that—a cost-effective, high-availability recovery solution that ensures hospitals can bounce back within minutes. Because when lives are on the line, downtime isn’t an option.