You scan the form letter with dread: Yep, it’s happened again.

Your hospital data was compromised.

Hospitals seem like a target for only the most heartless attacker.

“That’s why the hackers are targeting [health care] and the hospital companies.”

“Hospital and medical environments are generally distributed, and very hard to secure,” Bruemmer said.

The threat landscape isn’t going to improve over time.

And cybercriminals are even leaning on new advances inartificial intelligence.

“We all know that the hackers are staying way ahead,” said Bruemmer.

“They’re taking much better advantage of AI than the defenders are.”

The attack disrupted UnitedHealth’s ability to process insurance claims, transmit prescription requests, and more.

UnitedHealth revealed that patients' personal information was compromised, and it paid a ransom to theRussia-based cybercriminals.

But cybercriminals might not be bluffing.

One of the victims latersued the health internet.

Thankfully, ransomware attacks aren’t as frequent as other types of assaults yet.

Why are hospitals easy targets?

Hospital systems are complex entities with multiple cybersecurity risk vectors.

This is what happened in the Change Healthcare ransomware cyberattack.

“Cyberattacks have patient care consequences,” said Bruemmer.

“The complexity of large enterprises is a really big problem,” said Pingree.

Large enterprises have diverse and older systems, which means keeping the technology updated can be extremely difficult.

But I wasn’t even in the hospital!

What steps should you take to protect yourself?

You’ll need to do so separately with allthree credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

Use two-factor authentication or password-less options where possible, too.

He recommends using a password manager to help manage your passwords.

(See CNET’s picks for thebest password manager in 2024.)

(Check out CNET’s guide to thebest identity theft and protection monitoring services for 2024.)

What else should you monitor?

Garcia also suggested you double-check your own health records.