Cyberattacks on HIPAA-covered healthcare organizations are becoming more frequent and costly, with survey findings showing that these incidents are impacting patient care, slowing down procedures, extending hospital stays, and increasing mortality rates.
Healthcare Organizations’ Frequent Cyberattacks
A survey performed by the Ponemon Institute together with cybersecurity company Proofpoint discovered that 97% of healthcare organizations encountered one or more cyberattacks in the last 12 months. Organizations claimed about 51 attacks each, in contrast to 43 attacks in the same period last year.
The survey compiled 705 answers from IT and information security professionals in charge of cybersecurity policies, vendor and service provider selection, and security finances. Respondents represented public healthcare organizations, private healthcare companies, medical insurers, payers, medical insurance providers, and companies in life sciences, pharmaceutical products, and biotechnology.
The research analyzed four types of cyberattacks: supply chain attacks, cloud and account compromises, ransomware attacks, and business email compromise. Patient care was adversely impacted in 74% of the reported incidents. The findings also determined variations in the reported consequences of each attack type on medical care delivery.
Supply chain attacks had the greatest reported rate of patient care impact. Among respondents whose companies encountered these attacks, 90% claimed supply chain attacks affected patient care. 72% claimed ransomware attacks affected patient care. 69% reported business email compromise incidents affected patient care and 65% reported cloud and account compromises affected patient care.
Respondents also said specific outcomes linked to the different attack categories. Business email compromise attacks led to slowdowns in procedures and tests for 68% of respondents. Ransomware attacks led to longer patient stays for 70% of respondents. Cloud and account compromises resulted in increased complications from medical treatments for 59% of respondents. Supply chain attacks led to a higher mortality rate for 35% of respondents.
Growing Cyberattack Costs for Healthcare Providers
Healthcare companies reported greater costs linked to their most expensive cyberattacks in the last 12 months. The average cost of the most expensive attack is $4.2 million, as opposed to $3.9 million in 2025.
The average cost of disruption to business operations is $1.39 million per incident, as opposed to $1.2 million in 2025. The survey also links cyberattacks to slowdowns in clinical procedures, lengthier patient stays, medical problems, and higher mortality rates.
Artificial Intelligence Increases Security Risks
The survey discovered that 45% of respondents reported that their companies used artificial intelligence tools. 24% of these respondents reported AI use in cybersecurity operations, whereas 21% used it in cybersecurity and patient care.
Nonetheless, 60% of respondents reported inadequate controls in regulating the use of sensitive data in AI systems. Though security measures had been applied, 42% said those measures were not created for AI platforms. Only 32% reported complete visibility into AI tool usage in their companies.
The most often recognized AI-specific risks included the following:
- malicious or prejudiced outputs impacting care choices – 32%
- AI-generated phishing and social engineering attempts – 34%
- data leakage through prompts – 36%
- supply chain risks involving AI vendors – 40%
Insider Incidents’ Continuing Impact on Healthcare
The survey also found insider-related data loss and exfiltration as an ongoing challenge. In the last 12 months, 97% of organizations encountered at least two such occurrences, with an average of 21 incidents per company. 54% of respondents reported an impact on patient care, and 56% said insider incidents led to higher mortality rates.
