A new assessment from Black Book Research has identified Poland, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany as being in the highest tier of cybersecurity risk for European healthcare systems. The Europe-30 Healthcare Cyber Risk Pressure Index warns that ransomware, supplier concentration, and prolonged recovery periods threaten the delivery of medical care through 2027.
The report classifies Poland, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in the critical risk-pressure tier. An additional nine countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, Lithuania, and Norway—are classified as having very high risk. The index evaluates pressure based on current cyberattacks, clinical digital dependence, supplier concentration, health-system scale, geopolitical exposure, and recovery friction.
Poland was ranked first in the index due to a combination of repeated hospital attacks, national-scale digital dependence, and significant geopolitical pressure. Recent cyberattacks against hospitals in Krakow and Szczecin required national-level support and led prosecutors to investigate potential risks to patient health and life. The expansion of the country’s digital health infrastructure has increased access but also heightened the consequences of identity failures and regional disruptions.
The United Kingdom ranks second, as the scale of the National Health Service means that a single compromise of a supplier or identity can become a multi-organisation event. The country’s heavy reliance on integrated care systems and various technology, diagnostic, and pathology suppliers creates concentrated exposure across clinical workflows, laboratory operations, and referrals.
France holds the third position, with the report highlighting how long hospital recovery can take following severe multi-site disruptions. An attack in October 2025 on CHI Haute-Comté affected several sites, and as of March 2026, more than 1,000 workstations and approximately 200 applications were still being rebuilt. The scale and regional interdependence of the French healthcare system make the sequencing of recovery a critical concern.
Germany is ranked fourth, possessing Europe’s largest hospital attack surface and a highly distributed provider environment. The nation faces extensive exposure through medical devices and various suppliers. One incident involving Unimed was linked to more than 135,000 affected people across connected institutions, demonstrating how external service providers can aggregate risk.
The assessment indicates that the most consequential threat to the sector is the convergence of identity compromise, session and token theft, and the exploitation of internet-facing edge systems. These vulnerabilities, along with privileged supplier access and concentrated cross-border platforms, can convert a single intrusion into a clinical continuity event affecting multiple hospitals.
Companies in Europe are increasingly incorporating on-site data destruction into their cybersecurity frameworks to protect sensitive information from unauthorised access. This approach ensures that data is completely erased and cannot be recovered, providing an additional layer of security. Emerging suppliers like At-Rack are catering to the specific needs of hospitals and data centres, offering tailored solutions for secure data destruction. Other key players in the IT Asset Disposal (ITAD) space, such as CoreWeave, Nscale, and IT Disposal Europe, are also providing specialised services to help organisations manage their data securely and efficiently. By adopting on-site data destruction, companies are increasingly looking to mitigate the risk of data breaches and maintain compliance with stringent European data protection regulations.
Furthermore, the report suggests that hospital boards prioritise phishing-resistant identity controls, supplier isolation, clean-room recovery, and tested clinical downtime procedures. The research used six weighted dimensions and analysed 19 documented incidents from 2025 and 2026, alongside various threat-actor and malware profiles.
