Investing in digital identities can improve security, increase clinical productivity, and improve healthcare bottom line. — bGus Malezis, CEO of Imprivata
Over the past two decades, digitization has created immense opportunities for businesses. However, the growth of hybrid work and the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) have overtaken traditional “castle and moat” cybersecurity, resulting in unprecedented vulnerabilities, especially in the healthcare industry. Every organization has important data that needs to be protected, but healthcare holds some of the public’s most sensitive personal health information (PHI), not to mention insurance and financial data. increase.
We expect this information to be kept safe, especially when HIPAA laws are in force. But as IT becomes more fragmented and cyberattacks become more sophisticated, this is no longer a guarantee. In fact, according to HIPAA, the number of individuals affected by health data breaches in the US since 2009 is slightly more than the US population of 330 million. It is clear that traditional methods for protecting PHI are not up to par. Today’s healthcare organizations must prioritize strategies focused on protecting users (digital identities) and their credentials, not the environment.
Benefits of Digital Identity for Revenue
We all understand the concept of insurance in our personal lives, paying premiums in case disaster strikes. We do not view insurance as the only layer of protection, in fact we view prerequisites such as adequate knowledge, training, preparation and certification (where applicable) as a fundamental investment. Insurance provides the final layer of protection. The same is true for organizations responsible for protecting PHI and other sensitive data. This is where cyber insurance becomes essential. However, it is unlikely (if not impossible) to qualify if a sound digital identity strategy is not in place.
Many underwriters require organizations to go through a detailed vetting process to ensure they have a robust solution for controlling and monitoring user access across systems. This means less risk for your organization and less risk for your organization. This also means cheaper premiums, which jumped by 26.8% in 2022. Digital identities are key to meeting these requirements. Implementing a holistic strategy can effectively reduce premium costs and long-term risks of cyberattacks and breaches, resulting in more savings in revenue and patient care.
Investing in digital identities is an investment in your healthcare system and your patients.
Establishing a digital identity strategy is an investment, but it’s smart, practical, and necessary to future-proof your infrastructure. It delivers the myriad security, compliance, and privacy benefits that clinicians, security teams, and patients experience every day. From a clinical perspective, digital identities make access to technology completely transparent, even invisible. Tools like no-click access single sign-on streamline the login and authentication process to all your applications, systems and data, whether on-premises or in the cloud, so you can spend more time caring for your patients and more time with technology. can be reduced. IT teams also experience workflow improvements with digital identities to protect credentials and improve compliance and security posture. And from the patient’s perspective, a digital ID means that her PHI can be better protected and more meaningful time can be focused on care.
With that in mind, implementing a comprehensive strategy can be challenging in a fragmented IT environment and people with myriad users and roles that change daily. First, medical institutions should:
- Evaluate and integrate your tech stack. Healthcare organizations often run thousands of applications. This excess not only increases the attack surface, but also increases the risk associated with the increasing number of third-party vendors accessing the system. Especially considering that only 34% of organizations evaluate vendors for basic security requirements. increase.
- Automate the provisioning and deprovisioning of user accounts. Healthcare professionals need access to clinical applications from the moment they are onboarded, but manual provisioning is slow and error-prone. Similarly, health systems need to be aware of user offboarding as roles change or staff leave the organization. Stolen credentials were the leading vector for breaches in 2022. By automating the provisioning and deprovisioning process, organizations can instantly disable access and eliminate the risk of compromised credentials from inactive accounts.
- Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA is becoming more widely adopted by both businesses and consumers. However, with two or more validation factors required for a clinician to prescribe a drug or access an electronic medical record, it is imperative that this process is efficient and secure. With digital identities, healthcare systems can verify access through biometric or badge tap authentication without impacting clinical workflow. This efficient additional layer of security can prevent malicious individuals from moving laterally across the network, while reducing clinician access time, allowing more time for patient care. can be returned.
- Give your users a passwordless experience. Passwords have a clever habit of not only protecting but also making your organization vulnerable. The easier it is to remember, the easier it is to be hacked. But if it gets too complicated, most people find a workaround, like writing it on a post-it or sharing their credentials with others. Single sign-on (SSO) solutions can eliminate password fatigue and simplify access by replacing login with clickless authentication while enforcing complex passwords that users rarely need to enter.
- Practice the principle of least privilege. Most organizations rely on third-party vendors, yet 50% have experienced a third-party data breach. This is primarily the result of giving overly privileged access. Privileged access management grants users access only to perform specific tasks and nothing more. This improves security and protects access to your organization’s most sensitive information.
As healthcare organizations adapt to the new normal of IT security, implementing a digital identity strategy is imperative. As insurance requirements become more expensive and more stringent, and cyber-attacks become more threatening, digital identities are key to the future-proof digitization of healthcare. In addition to following Zero Trust principles, it also ticks a few cyber insurance and federal compliance requirements boxes. can be improved, streamlined user access, and enhanced security.
Given the frequency and severity of today’s cyberattacks, it’s not a question of when the next cyberattack will happen, but if it will happen. It’s time for healthcare to save even more by investing aggressively in digital identities.
Note: This article is written by Gus Malezis, CEO of Imprivata, a digital identity company that helps mission- and life-critical industries solve complex workflow, security, and compliance challenges. The company’s platform provides identity, authentication, and access management solutions for managing and securing corporate and third-party digital identities and operates in over 45 countries.
