Ransomware Will Hit Hospitals. Rehearsals Are Key to Defense

Ransomware will hit hospitals, and rehearsals are key to defence, according to Arielle Waldman reporting on insights from RSAC 2026. A chief medical information officer, Joseph Izzo of San Joaquin General Hospital, described training during a downtime period and then realising how different it is under pressure when an actual attack struck a facility. He outlined IR recommendations for healthcare organisations, emphasising that preparation can determine whether the situation escalates or stabilises.

Downtime scenarios show that hospitals rely heavily on digital tools, with implications such as offline fax machines and fragmented data when systems fail, making it essential to rehearse partial and grey-zone failures as well as total outages. Izzo also advocates tabletop exercises that include frontline staff and warns that rising use of AI brings new risks, so planning should address both digital and human factors.