Over the past six months, cybersecurity attacks have increased around the globe, many of which have specifically impacted the health care industry. According to a 2017 Healthcare Breach Report released by data protection company Bitglass, 328 U.S. health care firms reported data breaches in 2016, up from 268. This year, the following attacks occurred: (1) In February, Californian Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid cyber attackers $17,000 in Bitcoins to regain control of its systems; (2) a month later, Alvaro Hospital Medical Center in San Diego was attacked but refused to pay; (3) additionally, Merck and Pennsylvania's Heritage Valley Health System were attacked; and (4) in July, Caro Community Hospital Medical Clinic and Quick Care (both located in Caro, Michigan) were attacked.

This past May, international headlines were made when one of the largest “ransomware” attacks on records aptly named “WannaCry,” “WCry” or “Wanna Decryptor” was transmitted via email targeting vulnerabilities in computer systems. During this attack, cyber attackers took over computers, encrypted information, then demanded payment of $300 of Bitcoin per machine to unlock the devices. The attack impacted 74 countries and a wide variety of industries. It affected some of the world's largest institutions and government agencies, including the United Kingdom's National Health Service, where 16 hospitals were hit. Since many of the European hospital systems are centralized, the result was crippling. For some reason, perhaps because the hospital systems in the United States are less centralized, U.S. hospitals were not significantly impacted by this attack.

These attacks impacted health systems in a variety of ways, resulting in the inability of hospitals to provide health care to the patients. Among other things, the attacks disabled the facilities and inhibited the ability for doctors to access medical records. Without access to medical records, hospitals could not access health insurance records to confirm coverage, and, more importantly, medical history could not be obtained, doctors could not prescribe new scripts or render services because they could not check for contraindications for adverse interactions or allergies. More minor complications resulted in the doctors' inability to update records or communicate with other doctors.