Healthcare Cybersecurity Threats Persist in 2026 

Healthcare organizations continue to face one of the most aggressive threat environments of any industry. 

According to SonicWall’s The State of Healthcare Cybersecurity in 2026 report, healthcare experiences higher malware volumes, sustained intrusion attempts, and more targeted ransomware activity than other sectors. 

Key Takeaways in Healthcare for 2026

• Healthcare averaged 102,209 malware hits per firewall during the first half of 2026 — about 4x more than the next most targeted industry.
• Healthcare recorded an 83% attack retention rate, the highest of any industry, showing cyberattacks persist year over year.
• Remote access infrastructure remains a major attack vector, with 13.3 million UltraVNC exploitation attempts detected in the first five months of 2026.
• Connected medical devices remain a growing security challenge, with 243 unique attack methods targeting healthcare IoT devices and legacy vulnerabilities like Hikvision CVE-2021-36260 still actively exploited.
• Healthcare faced 16.6 million ransomware detections across 10 active ransomware families, highlighting the sector’s continued appeal to cybercriminals.

Healthcare Attacks Continue to Climb in 2026

SonicWall reported that healthcare organizations averaged 102,209 malware hits per firewall during the first half of 2026 — approximately four times higher than the next most targeted industry. 

Additionally, healthcare demonstrated an 83% attack retention rate, meaning attack activity persisted year over year more than in any other tracked vertical. 

While IPS attack volumes declined across most industries, healthcare saw only a 16.9% decrease, suggesting attackers continue to prioritize the sector. 

Why Healthcare Remains a Top Cyberattack Target 

One of the report’s important findings is the continued exploitation of remote access infrastructure. 

SonicWall observed 13.3 million detections targeting an UltraVNC buffer overflow during the first five months of 2026. 

Healthcare environments often depend on remote desktop technologies to support telemedicine, clinical staff, medical equipment vendors, and distributed facilities. 

Without phishing-resistant MFA or proper network controls, these services become easy entry points for attackers. 

Once credentials are compromised, traditional VPNs often grant broad network access, enabling attackers to move laterally across EHR systems, clinical applications, medical devices, and backups. 

Medical IoT Devices Expand the Healthcare Attack Surface

The expanding use of connected medical devices also continues to increase organizational risk. 

SonicWall identified 243 unique attack methods targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices within healthcare environments. 

Devices such as infusion pumps, patient monitors, and imaging systems often cannot run endpoint security software, receive infrequent firmware updates, and share networks with sensitive clinical systems. 

As a result, vulnerabilities remain exploitable for years after disclosure. 

The continued exploitation of Hikvision command injection (CVE-2021-36260) shows that unpatched legacy vulnerabilities remain attractive targets. 

Ransomware Operators Continue to Prioritize Healthcare 

Ransomware remains another threat to healthcare organizations. 

SonicWall identified ten active ransomware families targeting healthcare during the first half of 2026, generating approximately 16.6 million detections. 

Gandcrab accounted for the highest activity, followed by JobCrypter, Filecoder, VHDLocker, and Ryuk. 

Multiple ransomware groups targeting healthcare simultaneously suggest deliberate attacks driven by the sector’s limited tolerance for downtime and willingness to pay.  

How Zero Trust Can Help Reduce Healthcare Cybersecurity Risk 

SonicWall suggests that organizations should instead adopt Zero Trust architectures to help reduce exposure.

This approach limits lateral movement opportunities and helps contain the blast radius throughout clinical environments.

Beyond Zero Trust adoption, the report also recommends other security measures to help reduce risk. 

Organizations should restrict UltraVNC and RDP to internal networks whenever possible and require phishing-resistant MFA for all remote access, including third-party vendors. 

Medical IoT devices should be segmented into dedicated network zones separate from electronic health record (EHR) systems and other sensitive resources. 

Security teams should also inventory legacy software and firmware and prioritize patching, virtual patching, or compensating controls for legacy vulnerabilities like Log4Shell and the Hikvision command injection flaw. 

Bottom Line

Healthcare’s cybersecurity challenges are unlikely to diminish in the near future. 

As attackers continue to focus on remote access infrastructure, legacy technologies, and connected medical devices, healthcare organizations must move beyond perimeter-based mindsets. 

To address these persistent threats, healthcare organizations are using Zero Trust solutions that continuously verify users and devices before granting access.