Defend Against Employee Imposter Threats

In healthcare cybersecurity conversations, many organizations instinctively are considering external threats to address perimeter defenses, malware or phishing attacks. Increasingly, attackers are impersonating employees to gain access to sensitive systems, steal data or divert payments, causing healthcare organizations to focus on system and data security. These are not traditional insider threats from actual staff or contractors, but external actors who exploit weak identity verification processes to look like insiders. 

According to the Identity Management Institute, impersonation attacks are one of the fastest-growing identity-related threats,¹ and have caused up to 60% of healthcare data breaches.²

The result? Routine systems like call centers, onboarding workflows and IT support desks become high-risk entry points hiding in plain sight. 

These impersonation tactics aren’t theoretical. They are happening today. Here are just a few real-world entry points bad actors are exploiting:

Call Centers 

External actors use social engineering to capture employee secret information (like passwords) and impersonate that employee to gain access to internal systems. One successful impersonation can unlock payroll systems, HR records or protected internal healthcare portals.

To counteract this, organizations are adopting more secure authentication methods, including device recognition, voice biometrics, and contextual verification like time and location of access. Some send secure QR codes or one-time passwords to known devices, improving both security and user experience.

Onboarding Processes

Imposters can intercept or mimic the onboarding workflow, appearing as new hires to gain early access to systems before full credential verification is complete. This is particularly risky in fast-paced hiring environments or when identity checks are manual or delayed.

Stronger safeguards include verifying identity before provisioning access, using digital identity verification tools (like document scanning and biometrics) and adding human review for flagged cases. 

HR System Manipulation

In one real-life hospital incident, a caller impersonated a physician, convinced the help desk to verify their credentials and altered the doctor's direct deposit information. Payroll was rerouted to a fraudulent account. This case underscores the high stakes associated with internal verification that is based on assumptions or outdated processes.

Email-Based Malware 

Attackers can send emails that appear to be internal, using spoofed addresses and trusted logos. These messages may contain malicious links or attachments designed to install malware or harvest credentials.

Modern tools can detect anomalies in sender identity, analyze links before delivery and flag impersonation attempts, sometimes before users ever see the message.

The Rising Costs of Imposters

Business Email Compromise (BEC) remains one of the most significant cyber threats to organizations today. According to the FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Report, BEC was the second most costly cybercrime category, with reported losses totaling $2.77 billion, second only to investment fraud.³  In 2024, 64% of businesses reported facing BEC attacks, with the average financial loss per incident reaching approximately $150,000.⁴  Compounding this threat, 80% of phishing campaigns are now engineered to steal login credentials, most commonly targeting cloud-based services where a single compromise can lead to broader system access.⁵  

Ransomware also remains a persistent danger: the FBI received over 2,800 ransomware complaints in 2023, resulting in $59.6 million in reported losses, an 18% increase from the previous year.⁶  These figures underscore the pressing need for enhanced identity verification, increased employee awareness and unified access controls across organizations.

While these incidents rarely make headlines, their ripple effects are far-reaching, encompassing data loss, operational disruptions, reputational damage and legal exposure. 

Strengthening Prevention With Combined Identity Verification Methods

Strengthening healthcare cybersecurity starts with rethinking how access is verified, granted and monitored across every level of the organization.

1. Email verification: Email verification treats the email address as a core digital identity signal. Solutions analyze a range of data points associated with the address, including its age, the domain's reputation, usage patterns and any linked accounts. By consolidating these indicators, the system generates a comprehensive risk profile of the email address, and the individual associated with it, enabling organizations to assess trustworthiness before granting access or completing a transaction.


2. Behavior-based verification: Behavioral analytics track patterns like typing speed, login location and navigation habits to establish a baseline for each user. When something deviates, the system can prompt for additional digital identity verification or flag the session, quietly reinforcing security in the background.


3. Identity access management: Access should align with responsibility. Combining role-based permissions with risk indicators, such as device trust or behavior, helps limit exposure and prevent both intentional and unintentional misuse.


4. Smart authentication: Static identifiers and security questions are no longer enough. More secure methods include one-time passcodes, device-based authentication and digital trust scoring, all of which confirm not only who the user is, but also whether the access context is legitimate.


5. Physical identity validation: In-person threats still exist. AI-powered tools can now help document authentication solutions detect fake or altered IDs by analyzing visual and digital inconsistencies, adding another layer of security at physical access points.

These tools are most effective when used in unison. Integrating identity verification, behavioral insights and document authentication into a single workflow reduces tool sprawl and enables risk-based, seamless access for trusted users.

The Bigger Picture

It’s uncomfortable to consider that someone outside the company is posing as a trusted employee and could so easily infiltrate critical systems. But in a threat landscape where trust is easily exploited, verification must be earned, not assumed.

The good news? These risks are preventable. By modernizing access controls and consolidating identity tools, organizations can create a more resilient, user-friendly defense. Unified platforms that integrate behavioral insights, access management and real-time verification help security teams work smarter, not harder, strengthening data security, protecting systems and people without adding friction.

Key Takeaways 

1. Outsiders posing as employees are an urgent and growing threat, and organizations can no longer afford to treat them as rare anomalies.


2. Entry points, such as call centers, onboarding workflows and IT support desks, are particularly vulnerable when identity verification processes rely on static data or outdated protocols.


3. Modern, adaptive healthcare identity verification systems are essential to data security. They not only reduce risk but also preserve a seamless user experience. By integrating identity tools, healthcare cybersecurity can be simplified in access management, threat detection and closing the gaps that attackers continue to exploit.

References:

1.   https://identitymanagementinstitute.org/insider-threats-to-system-and-data-security/
2.   Inside the Cyber Crisis Facing Healthcare, https://www.msspalert.com/perspective/inside-the-cyber-crisis-facing-healthcare
3.   https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2023_IC3Report.pdf
4.   https://abnormalsecurity.com/resources/2024-email-security-threat-report
5.   https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
6.   https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2023_IC3Report.pdf