While many of us may not really care too much if we overstep a few HIPAA regulations because we’re too busy trying to keep our business afloat, we often forget that all security risks are NOT created equal. While some HIPAA regulations may simply protect very minor data leaks [yes, keeping patients safe is definitely your goal, but errors happen], big ransom attacks may cause your business to STOP.
The biggest impact of a ransomware attack? On your medical billing. Without the flow of bills going out and payments getting processed and coming in, how in the heck are you going to pay for your staff and equipment?
With a ransomware attack, will you be able to continue to treat patients? Or will you start having to turn them away because you don’t have their records and don’t want to risk malpractice because your notes aren’t all where they should be (they all are encrypted from that nasty attack that just hit!).
continue reading
Ransomware is hitting the healthcare field more frequently than any other industry. Why?
Hackers and criminals understand that healthcare data is precious. Doctors want to protect their patients. They want to keep their patient records from criminals to protect their identities and prevent data theft. They want preserve a trusting environment where patients can share what is really going on so that proper diagnoses are made and treatments administered. The care about the people under their care and don’t want to compromise best possible care (by keeping meticulous secure records to ensure patients are consistently getting care they need and not having to worry about their identities being compromised).
As a business owner, you worry about your office being up and running when it’s supposed to be. Most importantly so effective treatments are done timely, but also to get billing out and payments in. Essentially, you worry about keeping the lights on, keeping your staff paid, and keeping your medical operations running.
As we put more demands on healthcare—with an aging population or with bouts of emergencies related to outbreaks or illness, we all depend on the healthcare system to run seamlessly. But in talking to doctors and administrators, what I’ve found is that many worry that their data systems are not keeping up with even basic security to prevent them from getting ransomware and data breaches.
continue reading
If you’re like many business owners nowadays, you’re probably considering options when it comes to cyber insurance. Cyber insurance will likely protect you from a variety of liabilities that you’ll incur if a cyberattack successfully penetrates your business network.
Legal Expenses—if your company is in fact breached, you’ll want to get some legal advice to be informed of all of the specific obligations you have under state, federal and local laws. A company needs to move swiftly through a breach to survive and having legal counsel experienced in cyber incidents can make a big difference.
When sensitive data gets leaked, there may be numerous legal up-hill battles in front of your business. Cyber insurance usually includes coverages concerning about any of the legal incidents.
continue reading
It’s the beginning of 2018 and I’m sure you’ve got your business strategy ready (or near ready) to implement for the year. You’re likely concerned about getting more sales, keeping your existing clients happy, keeping your operations smooth, and your business secure.
As business security is becoming an increasing threat for all businesses and security compliance is becoming the rule (rather than simply a suggestion), I wanted to spend a little time today walking through how to prioritize security projects that have the biggest impact for your investment.
Here are the simple rules that I follow when prioritizing IT Security:
Develop your prioritization criteria—as you dive into prioritizing security, you need to identify criteria related to how security efforts will help your business long term in its strategy to both keep users and client data safe, while not impeding on day to day operational efficiency.
continue reading
Getting More Out Of Outlook
Do you get lost in hundreds or thousands of messages a week? There are so many tricks and tips to make your email easier to handle!
Since tracking messages is a big challenge for a lot of folks I’ve talked with lately, I thought I’d briefly go through how to keep track of all of those little requests (both ones you send and ones you receive) that are so easy to overlook.
The most common oversights Outlook users complain about when having to track messages are:
continue reading
According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), healthcare organizations are failing to keep patient data secure. Security experts outside of HHS underscore that healthcare cybercrime will increase in 2018 because protected health information (PHI) has become a valuable commodity on the dark web.
Think a credit card is more valuable than healthcare information? Think again! The going rate for a healthcare record in 2018 is currently 1200 bucks! That’s more than 100 times more than the worth of a credit card.
The bottom line: criminals see healthcare as a major way to bank roll serious cash and if you’re not careful your office may be the next unsuspecting victim!
So that you’re prepared in 2018, I wanted to talk about the 10 most significant healthcare information security warnings that most experts believe will happen this year.
continue reading
