RSNA 2017: Ransomware to grow to $1 billion in 2018

Jim Whitfill, Chief Medical Officer at
Innovation Care Partners

The growing ransomware market was highlighted at RSNA 2017 in a presentation by Jim Whitfill, CMO of Innovation Health Partners. 

In his presentation HealthImaging reporter Cara Livernois says Whitfill projected the ransomeware market to grow to $1billion a year in 2018, up dramatically from $24 million in 2016.

Whitfill called for a increased effort by healthcare IT professionals to prevent another WannaCry ransomware attack. He outlined shortcomings in healthcare and security improvements needed in both hospitals and medical devices.

He called for increasing healthcare budgets for cybersecurity, which stands at an average of 4 to 6 percent of the health IT budget, compared to 12 to 15 percent of IT budgets in the financial industry.

Steps he said need to be taken include an overall inclusive security program that contains an in-depth defense strategy, network segmentation of medical devices and continuous employee training.