Midwest health system implements CynergisTek’s additional controls for more stringent requirements

CynergisTek announces a six-figure agreement for Privileged Access Management (PAM) services with an existing Midwest health system client to safeguard identities with special access or capabilities beyond regular users.

The increase in ransomware attacks has cyber insurance providers scrambling to cover their losses and the industry saw a rise in insurance premiums of 25 percent in the second quarter of 2021. In an effort to address the growing threats and costs associated, many cyber insurance providers are requiring clients to meet a certain level of best practice risk management strategies. If the client doesn’t comply the organization is at risk of increased premiums or may be deemed uninsured.

One of the numerous requirements is for organizations to implement and run a PAM tool that will continuously scan access, provides Just In Time Access (JITA), and delivers protection when credentials are compromised. News of these cyber insurance requirements led CynergisTek to quickly partner with Remediant, Inc. to provide the tool while the CynergisTek team offers a service to efficiently implement and manage alerts.

“Our healthcare clients are in the eye of the perfect storm right now,” said Mac McMillan, CEO of CynergisTek, Inc. “Right as they are dealing with the impacts of one of the longest pandemics in history, the threat they face from cyber-attacks not only hasn’t abated, but has increased and become more difficult, and now the cyber insurance industry has figured out that these attacks are costly and they are raising the bar for organizations to get coverage.” Organizations all over the country have reported receiving notices of huge increases in premiums for cyber insurance and more stringent underwriting requirements that in some cases will require real investment.

Crowdstrike’s 2021 Threat Hunting Report reported a 60% increase in what they call interactive intrusion activity or more sophisticated human-enabled attacks. They also reported that there has been a sharp increase in the number of attacks not involving malware which hampers traditional security systems’ ability to detect them. All of this adds up to a much more volatile environment where other controls become critical to stopping the lateral movement of attackers once a breach occurs.

“We have been talking about controls like PAM for a while now with our clients recognizing that eliminating access to credentials with elevated privilege significantly hampers the attacker’s effectiveness,” said Ben Denkers, Chief Innovation Officer at CynergisTek. “We are working closely with our clients to help them address this long list of requirements, and we expect that the mixture of our current service offering and new solutions reinforce our commitment to solving challenges like these and will drive revenue growth in the future.”