Patient data forms the lifeblood of numerous healthcare organizations. It comprises vital information such as medical histories, payment details, and Medicare identifiers. However, the industry has witnessed a growing upsurge in cyber security threats. The recent threat space underscores the real necessity for a stronger approach to cyber security in the healthcare sector.
In our post today, we are going to indulge in the real essence of cyber security in the healthcare sector and offer a complete overview of safeguarding patient data. We will also discuss a couple of cyber security threats encountered by healthcare companies with the preventative measures that are undertaken to avoid the breaches.
The Importance of Cybersecurity in Healthcare
It is not just about safeguarding sensitive patient information from hackers with the help of risk management for healthcare industry. Healthcare firms have some serious undertakings while working across the intricate environment. They have diverse clinical locations, with massive amounts of sensitive patient and financial data, a vast range of transitory users and mobile devices, connected life-saving medical devices, and several other healthcare applications and systems. The surface of these attacks is big and extremely vulnerable. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that healthcare is the growing target for cybercriminals whose intent is to get their hands on lucrative sensitive data or to disrupt the services for some ransom payouts.
Reportedly, the most notable healthcare breach occurred at the health insurance provider Anthem Inc., which compromised 78.8 million of private data. These financial losses were at stake in such a breach, which compromised patients’ data and medical records.
At the same time, the industry has some stringent data protection regulations, with HITECH, HIPAA, and PCI DSS among the several regulatory guardrails. Compliance is a constant challenge mainly because so much sensitive data is stored within EHRs or Electronic Health Records. Cybersecurity is important as a mode of protection for every healthcare firm, from the smallest practices to the biggest hospitals. The safety and privacy of patients demand robust cybersecurity measures across the healthcare network.
Key Strategies to Safeguard Patient Data
Ensuring the enterprise security and confidentiality of the patient data that stays important across the healthcare network, the following is the complete overview of the important compliance strategies that are effectively proven to help:
Robust Security Frameworks
Adopting a multi-layered security model is essential. This model includes deploying firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and constant monitoring to identify and counteract threats in real-time. Outdated software often becomes the key target. Companies should effectively prioritize regular updating of the software and patching the risks, fending off any possible attacks.
Conduct Regular Risk Assessments
Having a robust audit trail can help in terms of identifying the root cause and the other valuable details of any incident that occurs, and here, proactive prevention with healthcare vendor risk management is equally important. Try conducting regular risk assessments to identify the risks or the weak points within the security of the healthcare company, shortcomings within the employee education, inadequacies within the security posture of business associates or vendors, and other areas of concern.
Assessing the risks across healthcare companies periodically for proactively identifying and mitigating the possible risks can help healthcare providers and business associates avoid expensive data breaches and several other negative effects of data breaches, from reputation damages to facing penalties.
Encryption Protocols
Data should stay encrypted whenever it is at rest or in transit. Employing encryption protocols allows healthcare providers to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of patient data.
Encryption protocols consist of various standards and techniques. One of the common methods included here is the advanced encryption standard, which is recognized internationally for its robustness and transport layer security to secure data in transit over the networks. Furthermore, healthcare institutions will implement their full-disk encryption on the storage devices, ensuring that data stays inaccessible even when the physical device gets compromised.
It is important for providers to update and assess their encryption strategies regularly, mainly due to the evolution of cyber threats. Regular testing, audits, and training will ensure that every protocol safeguards sensitive data.
Access Controls
Not all staff members need access to every patient’s data. Role-based access controls will limit access to data based on a person’s role in the company, restricting exposure points. Implementation of biometric verification, multi-factor authentication, and regular auditing of access points will boost security.
Staff Training
Human error remains relatively vulnerable. Regular training sessions and workshops help the staff identify threats like phishing emails, maintain strong passwords, and follow security protocols that are regularly updated. Consistent research will highlight the return on investment for staff daily training. Empowered employees will help prevent potential breaches, acting as an additional line of defense against any threats.
Leveraging Existing Tech Solutions
The rapid technological evolution has left numerous companies with an array of pre-existing solutions that are harnessed across the healthcare sector.
Cloud storage offers greater potential in terms of scalability and accessibility. But, it is important to pick secure cloud solutions that are streamlined for healthcare, ensuring that patient data is not compromised. EHR, or Electronic Health Records, have changed the entire outlook of patient data management. Leveraging the expertise of third-party security solutions is important, as they will bring specialized tools and knowledge that boost the company’s data protection abilities.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity is an essential feature across the growing healthcare networks. It is vital for protecting the key details of the patients against cyber threats, ensuring a good compliance with the regulatory requirements. Healthcare organizations should follow proactive measures to prevent security breaches with the implementation of robust solutions to detect and prevent any attacks. Furthermore, the regular training of the employees is important to maintain a robust cybersecurity framework adopting the best practices followed by the company.
