[BreachExchange] 6 Tips for Improving Healthcare Data Security

[Destry Winant]

https://innotechtoday.com/6-tips-for-improving-healthcare-data-security/

The healthcare industry has become a target for cyber criminals due to
its lucrative potential. Despite raising awareness and tightening data
security, healthcare organizations still struggle to fight against
increasing cyber attacks in their business.

If you are asking why cyber criminals are interested in obtaining
healthcare data, the answer is simply because of the patient’s
personal information. Once a hacker successfully gets a patient
healthcare information like name, age, birthday, Social Security
number, he can use it by pretending that he is the patient to buy
medical drugs, or he can access their Social Security fund and steal
the patient’s money.

This cyber crime is also known as identity theft. Many patients have
been a victim of identity theft due to poor patient data security.
Healthcare organizations must thoroughly look into how secure they
handle patient data to prevent data losses.

So how do you improve your security measures in order to safeguard
healthcare data?

Protecting Data with Security Basics

Purloined healthcare information is usually used in various gains,
such as extortion, market manipulation, insurance fraud, and identity
theft. Sensitive details can also be used in blackmailing people. Most
importantly, attackers steal information in a range of hacking
methods.

Here are some effective ways to improve your healthcare data security
and protect all sensitive information in your database:

- Be aware of everything included in your network. With the continuing
advancement of technology, there are new tools to determine the actual
inventory of all devices on your network. You should also be aware
whenever there’s a new device added. That way, you can monitor your
network and understand everything that’s happening on it. Then you can
decide how you can improve your network based on the daily monitoring
reports.
- Strengthen patch management and update your software. Make sure to
implement strong patching with the latest software version in order to
prevent firewall breaches from cyber attackers. A high level of
security can help you reduce risk of financial damage.
- Be strict in terms of privileged access. Know which employees really
need to access critical and sensitive information based on their job
responsibilities. However, remove access immediately when they no
longer have to use certain data.
- Train your team to report breaches. A security awareness campaign
must be in place so that employees will understand how important it is
to report potential attacks including malware and phishing.
- Work with a reliable partner. When it comes to healthcare data
security, it’s helpful to outsource data processing with a trustworthy
partner in order to implement unbreakable firewall security program.
This will ensure that all your sensitive data are safe and free from
hackers.
- Comply to HIPAA regulations. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996) required the Secretary of the U.S
Department of Health and Human Services to implement rules and
regulations in safeguarding patient data. It covers all the health
organizations and covered entities. Previously, all patient data was
recorded only on paper but with the help of technology, healthcare
providers are now using electronic health records for faster and
efficient access. But it also has its own disadvantages, like the risk
of the system being hacked and data stolen by cyber criminals.
Complying to HIPAA regulations could help your employees learn more
about fortifying healthcare information security. You can opt to
educate your employees about the concept of HIPAA, on how to
effectively comply with all its rules and regulations, and what the
penalties are once a negligence in complying was proved by sending
them into training.

Employees are a big security risk due to human error. If you don’t
train them on how to avoid data breach and protect your healthcare
information, then you are risking your business. Remember, more and
more cyber attackers are targeting healthcare companies due to the
significant gain they can have from patient data.