Healthcare organizations’ number one priority is patient care. They’re in the business of helping patients, so most of their time, energy, and resources are allocated there. However, cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly important topic for healthcare organizations.

As society enters a fourth industrial revolution, the manufacturing industry is facing vast, rapid changes. Those changes are marked by both innovation, productivity and efficiency improvements, and new, unforeseen risks.

Third parties continue to be one of the biggest cybersecurity risks to an organization. Last year, nearly half of organizations experienced a data breach caused by a third party and with ransomware on the rise, businesses need to lock down their third-party security strategy before a hacker finds a vulnerable access point.

Despite warnings from every cybersecurity professional, passwords are still being shared, compromised, and ineffectively managed. 66% of individuals are using the same password across devices and applications. 42% rely on sticky notes to manage passwords. And shockingly, 59% of IT professionals rely on memory to manage their corporate credentials.

A couple of decades ago, I received my first “authenticator” while working at Indiana University. As explained to me then, the device generated a secure token that only it and the server would know about. In this way, the servers I was helping to support would know that the bearer of that device (me) was legit.

The fourth industrial revolution has arrived. Also called industry 4.0, this term refers to the rise of smart factories and how manufacturing as an industry is quickly transitioning from place-based warehouses to networks of global software, automated systems, OT, and integration of the internet of things to manufacture anything and everything in entirely new ways.

Ransomware has existed as long as the internet has. From phishing scams to system takeovers to cyber espionage, hackers and bad actors have figured out that ransomware is both easy and profitable. It’s so profitable, in fact, that ransomware attacks have doubled in each of the last two years, and account for 22 percent of all 2021 cyber attacks.

The world of cybersecurity is rapidly changing. Hackers are getting smarter and more sophisticated, and in the age of remote work, globalization, and endless third-party connections, attack methods and motivations are changing. Organizations need to pay attention.

With Imprivata FairWarning, your organization will be equipped with the tools necessary to ensure compliance and keep your data safe from any prying eyes.

The numbers tell a scary story. When polled by Ponemon, 44% of organizations say they’ve experienced a third-party data breach in the last year. In addition, 65% of respondents have not identified the third parties with access to their most sensitive data and 51% stated that their organizations are not assessing the security and privacy practices of the third parties that are granted access to their systems.