Protecting Medical Data
In today’s technological world, most industries are at risk of possible security breaches. With so much valuable personal data at risk, healthcare professionals agree precautions must be made for practices to protect themselves from a medical data breach. It not only shields patient’s data, but it also keeps the practice’s reputation intact and they won’t be subject to fines up to $1.5 million from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Below are 5 ways to prevent a medical data breach:
Conduct a Risk Assessment
It is always good to check what is going on under the hood. By assessing your practice’s data security, you will have a good chance of identifying any threats and vulnerabilities within your system. While you do not necessarily need to do this all the time, it should become a routine to see how the system is doing and if there are any tweaks that need to be made.
Continue HIPAA Education for Employees
It is imperative that medical practices adhere to HIPAA’s rules and regulations. In order to preserve compliance, your medical practice should educate and re-educate employees on current HIPAA guidelines. If they are reminded of the implications, there will be less risk of any healthcare data breach. Also consider adding cybersecurity awareness training for your staff as most threats are delivered via email and recognizing phishing attempts will reduce your risk from scams and ransomware.
Encrypt Data and Hardware
The best chance you have against cybersecurity threats is by implementing encryption technology into your system. While HIPAA does not require encryption, we advise encrypting all stored patient information to avoid any possible breaches. It is also important to encrypt your hardware, such as servers, network endpoints, and mobile and medical devices.
Manage Identity and Access Stringently
To avoid any data breaches from within your organization, consider giving employees individual logins to easily manage who accessed what and when. Further measures can be taken such as controlling access and validating user privileges.
Safely Dispose Computers Equipment
If a computer no longer meets your needs, you can either throw it away or resell the equipment in accordance with federal, state, and local laws. However, before you dispose of it you absolutely must wipe any classified data that is on the computer. We recommend a hard factory reset to erase everything on the computer in order to safeguard any chance of a security breach. Disposing of electronic equipment must also be done appropriately.
At Kobargo, we appropriately design superior threat defense systems at cost-efficient rates for small and mid-sized businesses. If you feel your practice is at risk of a medical data breach, contact us right away to learn how we can keep your data safe.
