The healthcare industry has been increasingly in the crosshairs of cyberattackers this year, with ransomware near the top of the sector’s biggest cyber threats. Hackers are attacking IT systems and personal data, among other things, with the aim of manipulation or theft.
But it’s not just hospitals that are affected by cyberattacks; their suppliers are under attack as well. Artivion, a leading manufacturer of medical devices for cardiac surgery, has announced it was the victim of a ransomware attack on Nov. 21 that forced the company to take some systems, including parts of its accounting department, offline.
According to the company, while it can continue to offer its products and services to its customers, the incident has led to disruptions in some ordering and shipping processes, as well as in certain business operations. These issues have largely been mitigated, but the company cannot assure that the incident will not have a significant impact going forward.
The Atlanta-based company employs over 1,250 people worldwide and has sales representatives in more than 100 countries. It also operates manufacturing facilities in Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; and Hechingen, Germany.
US healthcare system is a popular target
Artivion is not the only healthcare company in the US that has fallen victim to cyberattacks in recent weeks and months:
- The BianLian cybercrime group attacked Boston Children’s Health Physicians (BCHP) and threatened to release stolen data if a ransom was not paid.
- In September, Texas’ UMC Health System had to turn away patients due to a similar attack.
- In early December 2024, Massachusetts’ Anna Jacques Hospital revealed that the sensitive health data of over 310,000 patients had been stolen over Christmas 2023.
Incidents such as these show the range of targets cybercriminals are going after, preying on the need of hospitals in particular to quickly fulfill their duty of care and give in to their demands.
Disrupting the healthcare supply chain by going after manufacturers of critical healthcare equipment, as is the case with Artivion, is another way cybercriminals leverage the importance of timeliness in patient care and the industry in general against the entities they attack.