Netgain

Are you reading this blog from your phone or tablet? If so, you’re in good company. Mobile devices accounted for 51 percent of internet usage worldwide in October compared to 48 percent by desktop.

In healthcare, mobile trends are similar. Sixty-three percent of physicians use tablets to access medical research and 44 percent use smartphones to communicate with nurses and other patient staff.

Remember the great con-artist, Gregor MacGregor, known as the “king of all con-men?” He convinced people to invest in an entirely fictitious country that he had conjured up. More recently, remember Bernie Madoff, the con-artist who made off with more than $65 billion of investors’ money in a ponzi-scheme?

In the past, great con-artists only preyed on the rich and famous, but that’s changed. New modern-day con-artists come in the form of hackers using social engineering tactics to steal the money and identities of regular people every day.

Security challenges and data privacy continue to be leading concerns for healthcare organizations. Now that an individual medical record can go for an average of $363 on the  black market, hackers are zeroing in on the healthcare market as a significant opportunity for income.

Recently, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid a $17,000 ransom in bitcoins to a hacker who seized control of the hospital's computer systems and would only give back access once the ransom was paid.

While the No.  1 priority of healthcare practices is patient satisfaction, compliance continues to be a significant focus for practices across the nation. Modern Healthcare reports that in 2016, there were 106 major healthcare data breaches attributed to hackers and reported to the federal government. Those breaches exposed 13.5 million individuals' records.

Antivirus software is about 40 percent effective, according to ZueS Tracker, a tool that tracks malicious hosts. This statistic is startling, especially for organizations that rely almost solely on antivirus to protect their most sensitive data from malicious attacks. 

Truly protect your business with whitelisting. It is, essentially, the inverse of antivirus.  Antivirus identifies malicious content and stops it from attacking your environment. Whitelisting, on the other hand, is a process of identifying what should be able to run in your environment and blocking everything else.

You think your data is safe. Then you get the call every healthcare organization dreads and hear the words: There has been a security breach.

What would you do? Nearly 90 percent of healthcare lawyers think their healthcare clients are at a greater risk for cybersecurity attacks than other industries, according to a survey conducted by the American Health Lawyers Association.

Consumers have more device options than ever and with the recent launch of the iPhone 7 and the holidays, it won’t be long before workplaces are flooded with new devices. As a result, employers nationwide are faced with decisions about how to secure, support and manage the devices being brought to work.

How many passwords do you have? They have become essential for many websites that we login to, change often and can be hard to keep straight. Although passwords can feel like an inconvenience, they’re critical to protecting your personal information, and the security of your patients’ ePHI.

Are mobile devices putting your practice at risk? According to the 2015 HIMSS Mobile Technology Survey, nearly 90 percent of healthcare provider employees are utilizing mobile devices as part of their practice. Mobile devices provide a large degree of convenience but also introduce one of the largest risks to securing ePHI.

HIPAA audits are underway, and every Covered Entity and Business Associate has their name in the hat. You never know when you will be audited. It is best to be prepared.

From my experience working with our client base and others in the industry, I see some common items come up with audits. Do you have these five issues covered?