Cyberattacks are soaring—and more lucrative for criminals than drugs. It’s time to treat them as an ‘act of war’, health care exec warns

Fortune May 21, 2024
Beth Greenfield

The Change Healthcare cyberattack that disrupted nationwide health care systems earlier this year—affecting a third of Americans at a total loss of $100 million—was a major wake-up call: Such attacks in the health care industry are on the rise. And they should be treated with utmost seriousness, agreed a panel at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health conference in Dana Point, Calif., on Tuesday.

“In my world, it’s almost an act of war,” said Stephen Gillett, chairman and CEO of Verily, a life sciences company. “It’s that level of aggression toward infrastructure. Those are people’s lives, their personal information. That is not something that should just be a tech issue that we’re solving for.”

He believes this aggression calls for a response akin...

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