text:  Researchers have shown that cyber attacks on health care can have major impacts for patients, ranging from delays in treatment to what could have been avoidable deaths. Around the world, health care is a top target of cyber criminals. That's because they count on health care providers paying a ransom to restore emergency services. In South Africa, after a cyber attack on the country's National Health Laboratory Service, health care practitioners across the country are currently without access to digital tools that help them process blood tests.