A new study finds employees who are unaware of threat exposure and who have not been educated about the potential for threats to health care data and critical care infrastructure present the biggest threats.

The 2017 Level 3 Healthcare Security Study, conducted by HIMSS Analytics and sponsored by Level 3 Communications, Inc., finds despite nearly 80 percent of respondents saying employee security awareness is their greatest concern regarding threat exposure, 85 percent indicate they have existing security awareness programs in place for employees.

There are plenty of strategies that can take advantage of an employee's ignorance or obliviousness to certain types of threats, but there are plenty of other reasons to be concerned about cyber risk — including what insurers may do — or not do — for institutions and companies that fail to adequately protect confidential patient data. And there's also the little matter of medical devices being hacked — something that has yet to occur, but is definitely within the realm of possibility.