According to Computerworld, the average ransomware demand has now hit $1 million with recovery costs averaging $1.5 million. Some organizations are paying even higher ransoms, and the Change Healthcare breach in 2024 shows exactly how catastrophic this can get. The BlackCat hacker group stole about 6 TB of data, impacting nearly 190 million Americans. Change Healthcare paid $22 million in ransom while total losses from downtime and recovery exceeded $1 billion. The attack exploited compromised credentials on systems without multi-factor authentication, allowing lateral movement through critical healthcare infrastructure. This forced shutdowns of claims, authorizations, and eligibility verification systems nationwide.
The human cost of failure
Here’s the thing about that Change Healthcare breach – it wasn’t just about the money. We’re talking about a company that handles critical healthcare infrastructure, and when their systems went down, it disrupted patient care, billing, and reimbursements across the entire country. That’s 190 million people affected in some way. And the scary part? This wasn’t some super-sophisticated zero-day exploit. The attackers got in using compromised credentials on systems that didn’t have multi-factor authentication. Basically, Security 101 stuff that somehow got missed in a critical infrastructure provider.
Why in-house defense is failing
So why are these breaches still happening? The Sophos ransomware report points to two key issues: organizations either don’t have the right tools or lack the skilled experts to operate them. We’re facing a global shortage of over 4.7 million security professionals, and the threats are evolving faster than most companies can keep up with. Advanced capabilities like AI-powered threat detection and ransomware rollback features exist, but maintaining that level of defense internally is becoming impossible for many organizations. When you’re competing for talent with every other company and dealing with escalating technology costs, something’s gotta give.
The outsourcing solution
This is where managed security providers come in. Companies like T-Systems are offering what they call the “trifecta” of protection, detection, and response through their Managed Detection and Response services. They combine human intelligence with automation in advanced Security Operations Centers that provide 24×7 monitoring. For industrial operations where reliability is non-negotiable, having robust computing infrastructure becomes critical – which is why companies turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs built for demanding environments. The point is, you need both the right hardware foundation and the security expertise to protect it.
Changing the mindset
The most interesting shift happening right now is how companies are starting to view cybersecurity. Instead of seeing it as a cost center, forward-thinking organizations are treating it as a strategic advantage. When you can guarantee customers that their data is protected by state-of-the-art detection and response capabilities, that becomes a competitive differentiator. The Change Healthcare aftermath shows what happens when that protection fails – over $1 billion in losses and nationwide disruption. Maybe the real question isn’t “can we afford to invest in better security” but “can we afford not to?”
