By Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick
Twitter: @drnic1
Host of Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist – #TheIncrementalist
On this episode I talked to Kim Biddings, VP of Product for BIO-key (@BIOkeyIntl) a company focused on providing tools to uniquely and securely identify individuals to allow secure access. Kim is an expert in cybersecurity, biometric identification, and Identity and Access Management, and also a pastry chef in the making.
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We talk about the importance of security in healthcare and the challenge of implementations that never make it to full adoption. As Kim says
“Security only works when it’s adopted”
We discuss the various types of security and dive into two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA). A topic that is quite personal to me as I was recently SIMJacked – SIM Jacking or SIM Swapping (also known as a port-out scam, SIM splitting, Smishing and simjacking, SIM swapping) is a type of account takeover fraud that generally targets a weakness in two-factor authentication and two-step verification in which the second factor or step is a text message (SMS) or call placed to a mobile telephone. By taking control of someone’s cell phone you can take control of a large number of that individual’s accounts through their cell phone number. This attack was a reasonably sophisticated attempt to wrestle control of my life and specifically gain control of my bank account. You can read more details here.
Kim shares the details of a study conducted by Vanderbilt University in 2018 that showed that while the cyberattacks conducted on six hospitals and healthcare systems had technology impacts such as data loss, it was the security controls that were put in after the fact, to mitigate future attacks, that increased patient mortality rates.
When it comes to healthcare there are two key things that all security professionals need to keep in mind when they look to implement MFA, you must consider workflows and all the variations and as we discuss not only does too much security potentially have a negative impact on patient lives so to will poor security have a negative impact as well.
Listen in to hear our discussion on some of the challenges and solutions to implementing effective security in healthcare that can have strong authentication but still be convenient and adapt and layer to different circumstances.
About the Show
For years Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick, has served as a voice on the impact of new technologies on healthcare, earning a reputation as a leading authority on where the future of medicine is going. Combining powers of observation and real world experience, Dr. Nick has seen many predictions come true and makes the case that innovations in healthcare can be accomplished incrementally, not just by moonshot events. Tune in to hear Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist and his guests discuss what the future of healthcare looks like, how we will get there, and what it will take to improve healthcare for all.
This article was originally published on the Dr. Nick – The Incrementalist blog and is republished here with permission.