BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION – A CURE FOR THE COMMON PASSWORD
Debra Miller – Digital Marketing Communications Manager , HID , discusses how biometric authentication provides a cure for the common password in terms of its ability to offer data protection like no other – fingerprint scanners have accuracy rates above 99.5 %.
rom 2019 through
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2021 , nearly 1,900 healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records have been reported to the Health and Human Services ’ Office for Civil Rights . Those breaches exposed the sensitive and supposedly protected health information of 49.8 million individuals in 2021 , an 11 % increase compared to 2019 . The reasons for security attacks are obvious and not so obvious .
The root cause of most healthcare security breaches
The human element , such as phishing , stolen credentials and human error , causes 82 % of data breaches . It is little wonder that these conditions pose critical security and financial risks to the healthcare industry .
One of the obvious reasons for security breaches is that healthcare workers log in to multiple computer systems dozens of times per shift . Consequently , healthcare workers must remember between eight to 20 passwords to access patient-care applications .
Due to working under extreme time constraints and the need to remember complicated , ever-changing passwords , some healthcare workers engage in risky password behaviours . For example , 51 % of people reuse work passwords in their personal lives .
Unfortunately , 44 % of people know the risks of reusing passwords but do it anyway ; and 69 % of employees admit to sharing passwords with colleagues at work . These conditions lead to compromised , weak and reused passwords , causing 81 % of data breaches .
Moreover , for the past 12 years , healthcare , one of the more highly
Debra Miller – Digital Marketing Communications Manager , HID
51 % of people reuse work passwords in their personal lives .
regulated industries , has suffered the highest average cost due to system breaches . An individual ’ s health data on the black market can be worth more than a credit card because patient records often contain all their personal and financial information ( PII ).
Malicious actors also seek healthcare organisation vulnerabilities in notso-obvious ways , like those found in outdated IT infrastructure or software . Another not-so-obvious target is a healthcare worker ’ s use of personal devices that connect to the network . And even Internet-connected medical devices like insulin pumps and heart rate monitors are an easy gateway to accessing the servers holding patient data .
How biometric authentication provides a cure for the common password
Preventing those breaches is critical to protecting patient privacy and
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