While there is no user group that is safe from data breaches, K-12 is particularly vulnerable right now. In North Dakota alone, the state network used by K-12 schools, state universities, and other public agencies experience 5.7 known cyberattacks every month. Data breaches are not uncommon, and districts are limited in the measures they can take due to budget constraints.

It’s no secret there are high expectations surrounding the healthcare industry, especially today with the state of emergency and fear bound to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Healthcare organizations must take even higher measures to protect patient and staff safety, deliver a high quality of care in an efficient manner, and keep patient records and information secure with adherence to compliance requirements.

Conferences, music festivals, sporting events, parades— every event imaginable from coast to coast is either already cancelled, postponed, or has attendees at the edge of their seats waiting for the latest update. Hospitals and healthcare systems are sending thousands of non-essential employees home to work remotely. Universities and K-12 school districts are also shutting down all over the world, affecting 300 million students globally. 

From social engineering attacks and phishing to malware and hackers, the healthcare industry has a firm target on its back. As we explored in the other three parts of our healthcare breach crisis blog series, attacks can come from almost any vector with the payoff for criminals on the dark web or via ransomware being well-worth the effort.

There’s no question that merger and acquisition (M&A) transitions are incredibly complex, making successful integration a major component in realizing their full value. From a technology standpoint, this means implementing solutions, such as modern Identity and Access Management (IAM), that make integration as simple as possible.

As recently as five years ago, establishing strong network controls and ensuring a defense-in-depth posture was enough to minimize the risk of a cyber-attack and keep the bad actors out of your network. However, times have changed, and the delineation of organizational perimeters has blurred between on-premise and cloud-based resources as more and more users need remote access to resources and accounts.

*Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on HIT Consultant.

The healthcare sector is charged with preserving some of the most sensitive information of any industry. Hospitals and clinics are required to securely store data, such as social security numbers, patient medical records, insurance policy details, and credit card numbers.

In a recent blog article, we discussed the top 5 Identity and Access Management challenges the healthcare industry is facing. Evolving compliance regulations, growing M&A activity, digital transformation, ongoing financial and organizational issues, and mounting security threats are all driving the need for more comprehensive Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities that go well-beyond pure single sign-on (SSO) alone.

Recently, Identity Automation CEO, James Litton was featured in a USA Today article that posed the question: Is Single Sign-On (SSO) the answer to our password-related struggles?

Cybersecurity breaches continue to plague healthcare organizations. Every month, new horror stories about patient data being compromised hit the headlines. Despite this, and the evolving regulations in healthcare, the fact remains that the industry is still behind the curve when it comes to cybersecurity.

We’ve decided to take a closer look at the top threat actions that are causing these healthcare data breaches and how a modern identity and access management (IAM) solution can help. So far in our series, we’ve covered social engineering and malware attacks.