Keep healthcare data safe from hackers

Posted on Monday May 06, 2019

The healthcare industry is shifting their data to cloud services to serve their patients better and improve accessibility. This puts personal health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) at risk of getting stolen by hackers. Healthcare security experts believe that data breaches aimed at medical facilities are becoming more frequent because of the high demand for PHI and PII in the black market.

From financial information to medical information

In the past few years, cybercriminals have focused on stealing financial data, including credit card numbers and personal information. But things are taking a turn, the result of financial institutions fortifying their database and raising client awareness of the problem.

Stronger data protection measures in the financial industry have forced criminals to turn their attention to medical data, which is typically much less secure. Patient data includes date of birth, medical and physical records, and social security number - information that can't be easily reset, and is significantly more valuable than credit card data.

Securing healthcare data

Healthcare data has become more attractive to criminals, and it's crucial that medical institutions take necessary precautions to secure their patients' information from data thieves. Here are some best practices to secure healthcare data.

• Protect the network and Wi-Fi - Because hackers use a variety of tools to break into IT systems and obtain medical records, your healthcare organization needs to invest in firewalls and antivirus software. Network segregation is also a wise move; in the event of a breach, the attacker can't instantly access all of your organization's information at once.
• Educate employees - Staff members need training in information security, including setting passwords, spam filters, protection against phishing, and spotting different kinds of data breach methods.
• Data encryption - Encrypting data is one of the safest ways to secure it. Encryption translates patients' data into code, and only authorized users with a decryption key can decode it. Multi-encryption is also an effective way to keep out intruders.
• Physical security - Most healthcare institutions still retain their patients' records on paper, which are stored in cabinets. Ensure that all loopholes are covered by installing surveillance cameras and other physical security controls, such as electronic door locks.

It is important for healthcare providers to secure the sensitive information of their patients. If you want to know how your organization can better protect your patients' information, give us a call.