Healthcare is Under Attack

Hospitals, health systems, and healthcare organizations have been targeted with ferocity recently with ransomware on the rise, costing the healthcare industry an estimated $68 billion USD annually. Rising attacks and fraud are severely impacting these facilities’ growth and sustainability. A recent report of the US healthcare industry revealed that breaches rose from 386 in 2019 to 599 in 2020, an increase of 55.1%. The majority of these breaches were caused by hacking and IT incidents (67.3%) compromising private patient information and jeopardizing the quality of patient care as staff are overwhelmed.

The threats to the healthcare industry are numerous, from bogus healthcare marketing scams, to identity theft, fraudulent billing, and corruption. In fact, healthcare organizations experience more than twice the number of attacks on average as compared to organizations in other industries. The average cost to solve a breach in the healthcare industry is $3.86 million. The best time to prevent a breach is before one happens.

Passwords are Unsafe and Becoming Obsolete

According to a recent Google study:

• 49% of people use compromised passwords
• 80% of hacking breaches leverage passwords
• 73% of passwords have been reused
• The average cost for big companies just to reset passwords is over $1 million per year

The bottom line is clear: passwords are the problem and multifactor authentication (MFA) with biometrics is the solution. In fact, according to Microsoft, 99.9% of attacks can be blocked with biometric MFA. Doctors and nurses can use MFA to log into doctor/patient portals to access medical records and prescribe medication. Similarly patients can access their own records using biometric MFA, guaranteeing the privacy and security they demand.

Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations Hit With Cyber Attack & Ransomware

Ransomware attacks cost the healthcare industry $20.8 billion in downtime in 2020, which is double the number from 2019, according to an annual report by Comparitech. Recent cyberattacks and ransomware include:

• Scripps Health – 2021
• University of Florida Health- Shands 2021
• Beacon Health Solutions-health benefits and claims administration solutions – 2020
• Wilmington Surgical Associates, an advanced surgical care – 2020
• Riverside Community Care, a behavioral health and human services – 2020
• Universal Health System (UHS) – 2020
• Care New England Health System – 2020
• Sonoma Valley Hospital – 2020

Let Imageware help protect your organization before the next attack with:

• Passwordless authentication
• On-device capture with Cloud-based matching with configurable policies for mobility
• Passive anti-spoofing to ensure liveness without user friction
• Easy to use intuitive iOS and Android authenticator apps
• Easy integration into third-party systems with OIDC and SAML
• Administrator-friendly self-service portal for provisioning and monitoring