FAIR for Hospitals offers a way to put a dollar figure on a ransomware shutdown, a scenario that can cost roughly $1.9 million per day according to a 2024 analysis.
Cost of a Shutdown
The daily expense figure comes from a report that surveyed recent incidents across the medical sector. It reflects lost revenue, delayed procedures, and the need to reroute emergency services.
That same source notes a decline in the average total loss from $2.6 million in 2024 to just over $1 million in 2025, suggesting that recovery processes are becoming more efficient.
In practice, a single outage can halt electronic health records, imaging tools and bedside monitors, forcing staff to revert to paper charts and manual scheduling.
Quantifying Exposure with a Structured Model
One method gaining traction is the FAIR framework, originally crafted by Jack Jones when he was chief information security officer at an insurance firm. Today he leads an institute that teaches the approach.
According to Bernadette Dunn, the framework helps security chiefs speak the language of finance teams, turning technical likelihoods into monetary estimates that board members can evaluate.
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“We communicate risk and the likelihood of a ransomware event happening, and if it happens, how much it’s going to cost the organization,” she said.
Dunn also warned that attackers are increasingly leveraging AI to automate exploits, creating a “constant whack‑a‑mole scenario.”
The model forces teams to ask concrete questions about frequency and potential loss, then aggregates those answers into a single figure. That figure can be compared against a hospital’s risk tolerance to decide whether to allocate additional funds.
Looking ahead, the ability to translate technical findings into a clear financial impact may push more executives to treat cyber defense as a core operational expense rather than an optional add‑on. If the metric proves reliable, it could become a standard line item in capital planning cycles.
Practical Steps for Budget Approval
Liat Hayun stresses that many institutions still rely on vague heat maps that fail to show true exposure. By assigning a dollar amount to each scenario, the framework gives finance leaders a common unit for comparison.