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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Study: Ransomware, Data Breaches at Hospitals tied to Uptick in Fatal Heart Attacks

Summary: Researchers at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management used the HHS list of healthcare data breaches to examine patient mortality at more than 3,000 Medicare-certified hospitals, about 10 percent of which had experienced a breach. After breaches, as many as 36 additional deaths per 10,000 heart attacks occurred annually at the hundreds of hospitals examined, and suspected heart attack patients at breached centers waited an additional 2.7 minutes for an electrocardiogram.

Bottom line: The authors attribute the deterioration to breach remediation itself, which they say may delay, complicate or disrupt health IT and patient care processes - meaning the security response, not just the attack, is tied to the deaths. Former HHS deputy CISO Leo Scanlon said the findings show 'the exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities is killing people' and called for a congressional investigation.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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