*Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on Forbes.

In recent years, mergers and acquisitions have seen a record number of transactions and continue to draw staggering figures. According to a recent IMAA report, 2018 saw about 49,000 global M&As with a combined enterprise value of $3.8 trillion. This year is projected to have similar or greater numbers.

*Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on Forbes.

With COVID-19 forcing organizations of all sizes to shift employees to remote work, some may be concerned their company’s cybersecurity measures are inadequate. Though COVID-19 is the most drastic recent example of necessitating working from home, it certainly won’t be the last.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) in healthcare is designed to achieve the balance of strengthening security measures and enhancing clinical workflows through efficient access to digital tools and records— all the while meeting HIPAA and HITECH compliance.

Maturity models can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of current capabilities and set a prioritization level when an organization is ready to advance its capabilities. When applying a maturity model to Identity and Access Management (IAM), however, it’s important to examine the key tenets of an overall IAM strategy.

Enhanced security, increased patient safety, reduced risk of prescription fraud, better patient experience— the benefits of Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances (EPCS) are clear. Spurred in response to the opioid crisis, EPCS eliminates paper prescriptions by allowing clinical prescribers to electronically write prescriptions for controlled substances. It also permits pharmacies to receive, dispense, and archive e-prescriptions.

Time and time again, we see data breaches frequenting the headlines, and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In fact, 2019 alone saw two of the top five largest data breaches recorded in all time.

Access Management (AM) is a critical area in any cybersecurity strategy that refers to how identities are applied to the data and resources in an organization’s environment, ensuring users have the correct access to the appropriate systems, resources, and applications.

Public and highly regulated organizations require audits to ensure business is conducted in an appropriate manner. The audit process provides verification that everyone in the organization has the access they need and only what they need.

Recently, we discussed the Identity Lifecycle Management (ILM) Maturity Model, including how ILM fits into a modern identity and access management (IAM) system and benefits organizations as a whole. ILM centers around the creation of identities, taking appropriate actions for any changes, and the removal of identities across all the services and applications end users access within an organization's ecosystem.

March 23, 2019 seemed like any other Monday at Capital One headquarters. Little did employees and customers know that, over the weekend, a hacker had successfully breached Capital One’s security defenses. 

As a result, more than 140,000 Social Security Numbers, 1 million Canadian Social Insurance numbers, and over 80,000 pieces of banking and credit information were stolen, along with an undisclosed number of names, addresses, credit scores, and more.