Username and password authentication is a fixture in healthcare but one that continues to hinder operations and put patient privacy – and care – at risk. In just the first three months of 2024, there were over 116 data breaches in the healthcare industry, allowing cybercriminals to access private patient data, medications, clinical records, Social Security numbers, and more by employing tactics like phishing emails and malware.

As a result, passwordless authentication is steadily gaining traction, enabling healthcare facilities to implement more secure user verification and streamline access management.

The transition to passwordless won’t happen overnight. However, we can expect continued adoption of passwordless methods over the next decade, as the challenges of traditional passwords become too glaring to ignore in this mission-critical industry.


More

Spark, CBC Radio: Forget the password. No, really! They’re about to become obsolete

FIDO Executive Director Brett McDowell tells radio host Nora Young how WebAuthn is bringing simpler,…

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The Canadian Press: Death of the password? New web standard trades passcodes for biometrics

The Canadian Press reports that experts are “excited about the prospect of making logins “unphishable””…

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The Guardian: RIP passwords: new web standard designed to replace login method

In this article, The Guardian’s Samuel Gibbs reports that “WebAuthn will eliminate need for passwords…

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