Imprivata has published a new white paper on how to navigate “the journey to passwordless for healthcare,” covering passwordless authentication in the healthcare sector. Healthcare organizations, it says, face “unique obstacles related to shared mobile devices and workstations, clinical workflows, plus legacy apps, which make achieving full passwordless a challenge.”

According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, 80% of breaches stem from compromised credentials. While passwords were meant to protect us, they’ve instead become one of our biggest vulnerabilities.

I’ve been practicing medicine long enough to remember the days before the electronic health record (EHR). My ‘ER note’ for each patient was hand-written on paper, one page long. I carried 50 ER notes around on my clipboard throughout my entire shift. After board rounds, I finished them up and handed them to the Unit Coordinator who would fax them to the coding department and file them into paper medical charts. Written orders and paper scripts were the norm.

As news of the WannaCry ransomware attack continues to escalate, we’d like to ask you to pause for a moment and think beyond securing your perimeter. Consider that there is, or will be, an impact to your systems and network; you may have avoided WannaCry and its variants, but one (or more) will get through in the future, and you WILL BE IMPACTED.