Security Service: Healthcare cybersecurity has become one of the significant threats in the healthcare industry. As a whole, IT professionals must continually address healthcare data security issues because of specifics outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws as well as the ethical commitment to helping patients and the damage that healthcare security breaches can have on their lives.
Electronic health records, also referred to as EHRs, contain a host of sensitive information about patient’s medical histories, making hospital network security a primary IT concern. EHRs make it possible for physicians and other healthcare professionals, as well as insurance companies, to share essential information. This makes it easier to both coordinate care and facilitate insurance matters. Never before have medical professionals been able to collaborate in such dynamic ways to meet patients’ needs.
How Can My Employees Address Data Security Issues in Healthcare?
However, the interconnected nature of modern healthcare creates IT security risks — namely that consolidating. So much essential data in a field that nearly makes it a conspicuous mark for hackers and cybercriminals. In fact, the importance of data security in healthcare has never been more pronounced. Now more than ever, medical organizations must be vigilant in establishing safeguards against online threats. This is why it’s imperative to have a solid understanding of the risks and protections available.
Due to the sensitive nature of EHRs, healthcare providers must comply with the privacy and security rules outlined in HIPAA. So the reliable storage and backup data are crucial to keeping your company in compliance and maintaining your leads. The known threats to electronic health record security are at the forefront of regulatory policy. It requires healthcare providers to keep their patients’ data secure, so it’s critical that EHRs are stored, transmitted, and disposed of appropriately and according to regulation.
While this may seem straightforward, healthcare data security presents many challenges, both common to the IT field and unique to hospital cybersecurity.
Why Are Healthcare Information Systems a Target for Security Threats?
The paradox of shared healthcare information is that it simultaneously makes patients safer while also putting them at risk. The larger the network becomes, the more useful it is in providing top-quality medical care, but its data also becomes more attractive to criminals.
Healthcare cyber threats are a major problem for a few reasons:
- In addition to a patient’s records, medical provider networks can contain valuable financial information.
- Since there are very few people who do not see healthcare providers, nearly everyone’s personal information is available in some form.
- The interconnected nature of EHRs means hackers have access to the data that has collected under patients’ names for years. Sharing patient information is integral to providing the best possible treatment to patients, but that same sharing also makes networks extremely valuable targets.
Often, in cybercrimes, the attacker’s goal may be to gather information — either to sell or for their personal use. With the content available through electronic health records, a stranger could use insurance information to set up appointments. So they undergo expensive medical procedures or obtain prescription medication under the patient’s name. In these cases, the patient or healthcare organization may be held responsible for the charges or medications.
What Are Common Healthcare Security Service Threats?
In other situations, healthcare organizations have faced more direct attacks. Once the hacker has access to a network, they can install ransomware to encrypt files or lock essential services until the organization pays a specific ransom. Healthcare is such a time-sensitive field that organizations often have little choice but to pay the ransom and hope the money can eventually be recovered.
Although less common, network-linked devices can also be manipulated to administer incorrect treatments or otherwise change a machine’s function. These developments put patients’ lives in danger as a hacker could use this access for terrorism or hold a health provider’s ransom. In medicinal situations, where the change of a decimal or a minor change in dosage is the difference between life and death, healthcare providers cannot afford these potential threats.
Regardless of the hacker’s intentions, it’s easy to see why network security is so important.
Healthcare Security Service Skills You’ll Need to Be Successful
Before you decide to hire a guard, be sure each candidate possesses these important security guard skills. For even more qualities a successful security guard should have, read more here.
You can’t put a price on the security of your business. Hiring a security guard is the smart thing to do, while security systems have a role to play; So, they can’t protect humans in emergencies.
If you’re looking for a commercial security service company to protect your business then look no further than Lighthouse Security Service. The company is a licensed/insured private security agency that provides protection to many companies, hotels, and so on. Our security services are having in-depth training to handle various scenarios that can come up on the job.
Make your business protected by contacting Lighthouse Security today and get assistance with any of your business’s security needs.
