Ransomware and data breaches linked to uptick in fatal heart attacks

New research finds that at hospitals that experienced a data breach, the death rate among heart attack patients increased in the months and years afterward. This increased mortality doesn’t appear to be due to the perpetrators themselves — the hackers are not controlling the allocation of medications or doctors. Rather the issue may lie with how health care systems adjust their cybersecurity after an attack, according to a study published in October’s issue of Health Services Research.