Negosentro.com | Tips to Bolster Your Health Facility’s Cyber Security | Data breaches seem to be on the rise. As medical facilities migrate to the cloud, they often encounter the challenge of securing their patient data. Health systems and hospitals that fail to secure their electronic data may run the risk of damaging their bottom lines, reputations, and brands. Medical facilities found to be violating data security rules could also face hefty penalties. Here are a few steps that medical facilities can take to safeguard their patient data.
Data Segregation
Medical facilities often require an additional layer of protection for quick recovery in the event of a security failure or hack. However, working with masters in cyber security online can help a hospital isolate its sensitive information and save it in an encrypted format. Scrambled data formats often tend to be hard or impossible for unauthorized persons or hackers to access.
Session and User Reporting
Capturing logs details, including the accessed files and failed and successful logs, can be part of securing health records. Hospitals can use log tools to analyze and monitor their users’ logs. These tools can also help spot potentially unauthorized logs and notify the surveillance team of any malicious activities.
Breach Notification
Most data breaches often come to light when the media highlights them on their headline. Only a few medical facilities seem to have sufficient alerting tools and breach notification processes. Health facilities often require monitoring software that can notify their surveillance team about a potential data breach.
Annual Risk Assessment
Highly regulated industries, including financial services, can audit their operations regularly to ensure ongoing compliance. Unfortunately, many hospitals and health facilities often overlook this crucial step. With the continued migration to the cloud, it is time health organizations consider hiring a consultant to conduct annual risk audits. These consultants can help medical facilities implement monitoring tools that can help them spot any potential security risk before it arises.
Secure Transmissions
Data breaches often occur when data is being transmitted from one user to another via a private or public cloud. Implementing encryption can help prevent health records from getting in the wrong hands. Advanced levels of compliance encryption can help a health facility safeguard its channels and sensitive data during transmission.
Physical Security
Physical breaches can be as detrimental as virtual data breaches. However, using compliant data centers can help health organizations ensure ePHI security and mitigate potential risks. These data centers often offer extra security for biometrics, video surveillance, and access badges before granting access to health records. Compliant data centers can also provide multiple authentication layers and access control to make it easier to audit health systems. However, regular audits can help a health facility identify unauthorized attempts and beef up its security measures. Virtual data centers are often designed to withstand natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires. With a virtual data center, a medical facility can lock down its servers and restrict access to where sensitive health records are stored.
Data Encryption and Backup
Encrypting data backed up offsite and that stored onsite can help ensure quick recovery in the event of a data breach. Hiring highly trained IT specialists and having detailed procedures can ensure speedy recovery if a disaster or crisis occurs. Many data breaches often occur when a storage unit or laptop is stolen or lost. Fortunately, medical facilities can bolster their data security by encrypting their devices with security software.
Data breaches are often a menace in the medical sector. Fortunately, health facilities can take advantage of the cloud to bolster their data security. Encryption software can help medical facilities to prevent inadvertent access to their confidential health records and flag malicious logs. Backing up your health records can also ensure quick recovery in the event of a hack. Setting up a virtual compliance data center often helps a medical facility monitor its networks and beef up its security measures. Medical facilities can establish a robust compliance and security foundation with these proactive security measures. However, note that violating data security rules can attract hefty fines and penalties that could taint the image of a health facility.
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