Can ransomware threaten lives?

In July 2019, Springhill Medical Center in Alabama suffered a ransomware attack that crippled its systems for eight days. Among the affected tools was the fetal heart rate monitoring system, a critical safeguard for newborns.

Teiranni Kidd, unaware of the cyberattack, arrived at the hospital to deliver her baby. Since medical staff couldn't access real-time fetal monitoring data on the display screen, the only available information was the paper record at her bedside.

The distress signals of Kidd's baby went unnoticed. The baby was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. She suffered severe brain damage and tragically passed away nine months later. Kidd sued the hospital for medical malpractice and wrongful death.

As this case shows, ransomware doesn’t just encrypt systems—it disrupts the systems that protect lives. When digital displays go dark, alerts don’t trigger, or EHR access is lost, and patients suffer.

Protecting PHI: Why traditional security isn’t enough

Unlike financial data, patient health information (PHI) is immutable. Birth records, chronic conditions, and surgical histories, once stolen, can’t be reset like a password. PHI holds long-term value for cybercriminals, which makes the healthcare industry a prime target.

• 67% of healthcare organizations (HCOs) were hit by ransomware in 2024.
• Ransom demands double when attackers know backups are compromised.
• System intrusion is the number one attack vector.

Today, AI-generated malware can create new ransomware variants in minutes, bypassing traditional security tools. Ransomware-as-a-Service has industrialized cybercrime, making attacks cheaper and devastatingly effective. Yet, many HCOs still rely on outdated signature-based antivirus tools, which only detect known threats.

The solution: ManageEngine's ransomware protection to the rescue

ManageEngine can help you move beyond these static defenses. Our standalone solution for endpoints, Ransomware Protection Plus, is now bundled as part of Endpoint Central, our unified endpoint management and security suite. This ransomware protection functionality responds to known and previously unknown strains of ransomware with:

• Deep-learning AI

  Analyze 10 million endpoint events per day, stopping threats in real time.

• Behavioral analytics

  Detect fileless, AI-generated, and unknown malware based on abnormal activity.

• Patented anti-tampering backup protection

  Prevent attackers from wiping or encrypting critical data.

• Rapid rollback and recovery

  Instantly restore infected systems to a pre-attack state, minimizing downtime to critical care.

Experience Endpoint Central’s ransomware protection in action with our free trial.