Top 10 cybersecurity risks for the healthcare sector in 2025 

The healthcare sector was one of the most targeted sectors in 2024, earning the spot with the most data breaches and records exposed among the financial and manufacturing sectors. It is a desirable target for cybercriminals because healthcare organizations manage, store, and process an abundance of healthcare and personal data through healthcare information systems. State-sponsored attackers, also target healthcare organizations to cause national chaos through disruption of essential services.  

2025 will witness an increased frequency of attacks on healthcare with criminals weaponizing cutting-edge technologies to steal information assets, disrupt operations, and cause widespread chaos.  

Let us look at some of the biggest attacks in the healthcare sector that occurred this year. 

Some of the biggest data breaches in the healthcare sector in 2024 

• The Change Healthcare data breach in 2024 is the largest data breach ever reported in the U.S., with 100 million records compromised 
• Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, one of the largest healthcare organizations. suffered a data breach in 2024, compromising 13.4 million records 
• The data breach on HealthEquity Inc. led to the compromise of 43,00,000 healthcare and personal records, including names, addresses, numbers, social security numbers, etc.  
• A physical and occupational healthcare provider Concentra, suffered a data breach on its transcription service provider that led to the compromise of 39,98,163 patient records, including personal and health information 
• Acadian Ambulance Services suffered a data breach that was linked to a ransomware attack that was orchestrated by Daixin hackers. The attack caused a compromise of 28,00,000 records 

Some interesting facts 

Let us have a glimpse of some of the most shocking cyber-attacks this year on healthcare organizations: 

(Source – HIPAA Journal, Statista)  

• The number of individuals who are affected by healthcare security breaches grew, from over 240,000 individuals to 280,000  
• 67% of healthcare organizations worldwide have reported that they have experienced ransomware attacks   
• Healthcare data breaches have caused an average of 19 days of downtime in the US in 2024 
• Ransomware attacks in healthcare have cost organizations in  the U.S. a loss of $14 billion  
• Unauthorized access/disclosure incidents have led to a 263.3% increase in exposed records. 

Top 10 cyber risks for healthcare organizations in 2025 

In 2025, more healthcare organizations will embrace digital transformation and adopt Internet of Things devices for rendering new experiences. It might also make them susceptible to risks since most IoT devices come with weak security by default.  

Therefore, organizations must proactively assess their security posture for hidden risks and take measures to secure their most precious information assets. Let us have a glimpse at some of the cybersecurity risks to the healthcare sector in 2025. 

1. AI based risks 

As cutting-edge technology such as AI integrates with healthcare systems to render efficiency across some healthcare operations, cybercriminals in 2025 will continue to look for ways to exploit the security weaknesses in the AI algorithms and seek to leverage security vulnerabilities to orchestrate a full-blown cyber-attack. Once accessed, cybercriminals can steal, alter, or erase all the patient data, creating a massive distrust and rendering them unreliable for doctors with false diagnoses. They may even cause harm to the lives of patients by causing devices to malfunction, causing transmission of false patient-specific data that is critical for medical experts.    

2. Ransomware-as-a-service 

2024 saw an increased frequency in ransomware attacks against the healthcare sector with 67% organizations reporting increase in ransomware attacks. 2025 is not going to be any different. Cybercriminals will seek for opportunities to target healthcare information systems in big organizations and bypass their security to lock and encrypt all their sensitive patient data.  The widespread use of ransomware-as-service has allowed low-skilled attackers to carry out attacks without much need for proficiency in orchestrating attack.  

3. IoMT specific risks

Organizations in 2025 will integrate Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices to render operational efficiencies. Many of these devices don’t come with an additional layer of security and are often hardcoded with weak passwords. Cybercriminals can leverage the absence of security standards & measures and exploit security vulnerabilities in IoMT devices to laterally move across the network or engage in the creation of an IoT botnet to engage in far more serious cyber attacks. 

4. Absence of strong encryption measures 

Since healthcare organizations engage in frequent exchange of information between entities to effectively render their services, the absence of encryption measures can expose the in-transit information to the risk of exposure. Organizations in 2025 must implement strong encryption measures to the security of patient information and other sensitive information in transit. 

5. Increase in geopolitical/state-sponsored attacks targeting critical infrastructure  

There will be a rise in state-sponsored cyber-attacks that will be targeted towards healthcare organizations since they form a part of the critical infrastructure. Increasing geopolitical tensions mean ransomware gangs will continue to target public healthcare organizations, especially in countries that have the most continuous cyber warfare. There has been a 5% increase in the number of ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations since 2023 despite their implementation of cybersecurity measures.   

6. Data privacy regulations 

Healthcare was one of the most targeted sectors in 2024. As cybersecurity threats continue to threaten the healthcare sector, regulatory bodies like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act will keep increasing the cybersecurity and information security requirements. Subjected healthcare entities will have to pay harsher penalties for non-compliance.   

Therefore, healthcare organizations in 2025 must take proactive measures to identify security risks and ensure compliance recommended cybersecurity and information security requirements to prevent security and compliance risks.  

7. Supply chain attack 

In 2024, data breaches like Change Healthcare raised concerns about the impact of supply chain attacks on healthcare organizations. As per research by OpenText, almost 62% of healthcare organizations that have suffered data breaches were due to supply chain software providers. Healthcare organizations in 2025 must make proactive assessments of security an integral part of vendor and third-party contracts. 

8. Cybersecurity workforce shortage 

The cybersecurity skills shortage stood at 4,762,963 in 2024, it is predicted to grow at a rate of 19.1% on a YoY basis. It could make it challenging for organizations to address their cybersecurity needs with limited expertise in 2025. Awareness gaps might elevate the risk of increased human error, exposing healthcare organizations to the risk of social engineering-based attacks like phishing and ransomware attacks. 

9. Insider threats and social engineering 

70% of threat actors in data breaches in the healthcare sector were insider threats (Verizon DBIR 2024). Insider threats are dangerous because threat actors have accesses and permissions and knowledge of the systems before they can orchestrate a full-blown attack on the organization.  

In 2025, organization must be prepared for such threats while also regularly assess and address awareness gaps across levels to mitigate human error and prevent social engineering-based attacks. 

10. DDoS attacks 

2024 has seen a surge in DDoS attacks on healthcare sector organizations, with cybercriminals leveraging it to cause massive operational disruption, especially state-sponsored cybercriminals, with a motive of espionage operations in critical infrastructure.  

In 2025, DDoS attacks will become more difficult to detect and avert, making healthcare systems inaccessible for critical operations. It could pose a danger to the patient’s health. Organizations will need to tailor defensive measures with the assistance of cybersecurity experts to prevent DDoS attacks. It can include best practices like limiting the attack surface, network traffic volume limiting, traffic routing, and automated DDoS mitigation mechanisms.