MADISON, Wis., Aug. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nordic Consulting, an award-winning global health and technology consulting company, announced today an exclusive partnership with Fortified Health Security, Healthcare's Cybersecurity Partner®. The partnership will enhance Nordic's rapidly expanding portfolio of client solutions across key areas of strategic advisory, digital and cloud initiatives, implementation and support, and enterprise technology transformation.
"Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations are increasing in severity and frequency, with no end in sight," said Jeff Buss, Chief Information Officer of Nordic. "Partnering with Fortified Health Security combines decades of collective healthcare expertise and a deep commitment to ensuring that organizations build and strengthen digital resilience. It is critical that our clients be prepared to take on cybersecurity challenges in order to protect their data, patients, and communities. This partnership helps our clients accomplish this and much more."
The Nordic and Fortified partnership strikes a balance between enabling business objectives and managing organizational security risk through purpose-built, technology-enabled services that address evolving cyber threats across the healthcare landscape.
2021 has already proven to be an active year in healthcare cybersecurity. As recently reported in Fortified's 2021 Mid-Year Horizon Report:
The number of breaches reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the first six months of 2021 increased by 27% over the same period in 2020.
The total number of affected individuals skyrocketed more than 185%, from 8 million individuals in the first six months of 2020 to 22.8 million affected individuals in the first six months of 2021.
Malicious attacks were the No. 1 cause of breaches for the fifth consecutive year, and for three years running, malicious attacks accounted for 73% of all breaches.
"Advancing cybersecurity and protecting patient data is a fight that healthcare stakeholders must face together. The Nordic and Fortified partnership will deliver an approach to combating cyber threats which takes into consideration all of the nuances surrounding healthcare such as sensitive clinical infrastructure and data, regulatory requirements, and cyber-resourcing challenges," said Dan L. Dodson, Chief Executive Officer of Fortified.
