Dental practices got hacked 412 times in 2025. You're next.

Dental practices got hacked 412 times in 2025. You're next.

Dental practices were the target of 412 documented security breaches in 2025, up 28% from 2024. Patient data was exposed. Ransomware locked down schedules. Practice management systems were held hostage.

Why dental? Because dental practices don't hire IT directors. They hire teenagers who know their way around laptops. You're running software from 2010 on servers that get patched twice a year. You're storing patient data on the same machine where someone uses Gmail. That's a breach waiting to happen.

The cost of a breach is $10K to $50K in notification, legal, and downtime if you're lucky. If ransomware hits, double that. If you pay the ransom, you've just funded the next attack. If you don't, your schedule is dark for weeks.

The fix isn't complicated. Password manager (1Pasword, Dashlane). Multi-factor authentication everywhere. Automated backups to a separate server. Antivirus software that updates itself. A checklist you review quarterly. Total cost: under $3K a year. It's less than your coffee budget.

The practices that got hit in 2025 either didn't have backups or didn't have MFA. That's not a sophisticated attack vector—that's negligence. By Q2 2026, your insurance company might require proof of these controls just to cover you. Get ahead of it.