Rural hospitals are particularly vulnerable to ransomware, report finds

**Executive summary:** A CSC 2.0/FDD study warns that ransomware poses a serious and increasing threat to U.S. health care—particularly underfunded rural and critical‑access hospitals—highlighting recent disruptive attacks (Ascension, Change Healthcare), systemic vulnerabilities (legacy systems, large attack surface), and recommending increased federal funding, sector‑specific cyber objectives, network segmentation, staff cyber hygiene, and contingency planning to reduce patient care disruption.