Identity and access security in critical industries: what changes in 2026?

TL;DR: Critical industries are entering a phase where identity, access security, and workflow intelligence determine resilience, productivity, and response speed, according to Imprivata’s leadership interviews. Passwordless access, modernised third-party and privileged access, and identity-first automation are becoming the practical controls that legacy systems can no longer deliver at scale.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Imprivata: 2026 identity and access security predictions for critical industries

By the numbers:

• 92% of organisations expose NHIs to third parties, raising concerns about supply chain security.
• 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface.
• Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams implement passwordless authentication without creating new blind spots?

A: Security teams should pair passwordless authentication with identity threat detection, device binding, and strong recovery controls.

Q: Why do third-party and privileged accounts need the same governance as employee access?

A: Third-party and privileged accounts often have broader reach and weaker day-to-day oversight than employee accounts.

Q: What breaks when identity and access policies are too generic for frontline workflows?

A: Generic policies break when they cannot represent real operational context, such as role changes, site-specific tasks, or urgent exceptions.

Practitioner guidance

• Accelerate passwordless with telemetry attached Roll out passkeys, biometrics, or device-bound factors only where identity telemetry and ITDR can detect anomalies fast enough to replace password-era fallback behaviour.
• Reclassify third-party access as lifecycle-governed access Put vendors, contractors, and service partners into the same joiner-mover-leaver and recertification discipline you use for employees, including ownership for revocation when work ends.
• Map privileged workflows to actual operating context Document where role, device, site, and task conditions change access decisions, then use that map to remove generic policy exceptions that have become permanent workarounds.

What's in the full article

Imprivata's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• Interview context from Imprivata leadership on why these 2026 predictions were selected.
• More detail on how passwordless authentication is expected to reduce reset requests and improve user experience.
• Expanded discussion of industry-specific workflow demands in healthcare, manufacturing, and public safety.
• Additional commentary on how AI changes identity and access design in frontline environments.

👉 Read Imprivata's 2026 identity and access security predictions for critical industries →

Identity and access security in critical industries: what changes in 2026?

Explore further

View Full Forum →  |  NHI Foundation Course →