The last year 2018 has seen many data breaches. So it is obvious that every industry is concentrating on providing the best security for their data. However, the healthcare industry acquires the most sensitive data. This data includes all the health details of the patients. Therefore, for any healthcare organizations securing the health data is very challenging.
To satisfactorily implement Healthcare Insurance data security, the organization needs to properly have an idea of how strong and effective cybersecurity is provided. Sometimes it is not just enough if you dump a few pieces of free protecting software and just sit back and relax.
You need to thoroughly investigate the cybersecurity details and requirements to avoid any sort of data compromise. A sophisticated approach to control healthcare data breach is needed right now.
In this article, we will learn about a few steps to protect sensitive healthcare data.
Have a Strong Data Policy:
Many companies or organizations do not invest much in their data security. Given that, you need to know it is shocking to see that less than a quarter (21%) of small businesses have a strong cyber insurance policy when compared to more than half (58%) of large companies.
According to reports, 47 percent of organizations fall prey to low data security standards. The consequences of getting your healthcare data stolen could affect your firm in many ways. One of them lies in the fact that it will cost your reputation in the industry.
Rest of them are followed by loss of your hard earned money, disruption in everyday business, allocating budgets on data recovery and many more.
Therefore, the most simple solution to this is to have a strong data policy. This can be done in two ways.
The first and foremost thing is employees need to be aware of how serious this problem is. There should be a team to focus on explaining what unsecured networks are and how do avoid them. Focus on explaining both their work devices and personal devices.
Most importantly, make them aware of the different types of cybercrime your organization may face. Furthermore, explain how much these attacks cost your business, and highlight the necessary preventive measures.
For example, train them on what types of sites they must avoid and what kind of files, links or documents they should not access or open. Most of them spend the leisure time on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you should explain the social media frauds and warm them not to accept any request from the unknown or provide any sort of information about the company.
Secondly, to build a strong cybersecurity policy. As the name suggests, this is a comprehensive document which contains all the clear guidelines for your employees on how to share and consume online data to protect data privacy.
Hence, these guidelines should be written in a simple and easy language. Additionally, they need to follow a set of rules on how an employee should behave to avoid a data breach and also the immediate steps to take when the hack occurs.
Securing Mobile Access:
The usage of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are on high use. Therefore, the usage of these mobile devices is the primary concern with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT).
However, there are many new types of connected devices In healthcare industry medical devices like blood pressure monitors may be connected to a network.
Here are some tips for maintaining adequate connected device security include:
- To maintain IoT devices on their own separate network
- To monitor IoT device networks to identify sudden changes in any login credential activity levels that may indicate a healthcare data breach.
- To implement a strong multi-factor authentication always.
- Make sure all the connected devices are updated to ensure better network security for the healthcare data.
- To perform regular mock testings about unidentified device logins and the required call to actions.
Invest in an Anti-Malware and Firewall Software/Hardware:
We have seen a series of new kinds of cyber attacks in the year 2018. The best solution to avoid a healthcare data breach is to invest in a solid anti-malware and firewall software protection.
Malware is still the dominant form of cybercrime. We have witnessed Crypto mining attacks gained greater popularity and have risen by 141%.
Healthcare Cyber attacks have become more complex. They are a cluster of series of individual attacks that work cohesively and aim to attack the different components of your business and network.
However, the IoT devices are also considered the next critical victim of cybercriminals in 2019. Some popular botnets like IoT Reaper and Mirai have signified how harmful and infecting connected devices can be.
Let us see, for example, the main purpose of targeting your company and the sensitive data is by infecting your business website. Thereby, a hacker can crack your password, manage your business devices, manipulate the data and finally breach your data without even you getting noticed.
However, the security software confirms the suspicious website they hacked as a trusted device, thus the commands which are coming will not appear dangerous.
You can now find many anti-virus software on the internet to download is not that effective against hackers. They are not designed for early infections and can be too late to save the healthcare data.
Because of that, you need to rely on cyber solutions that are designed with convenience and responsibility. The firewall software you choose needs to identify different types of threats and segregate them on timely basis preventing from attacking your systems and healthcare data. Make sure to provide real-time detection and quick response for great security.
Encryption and Backup your Data:
It is not sufficient just to depend on malware and firewall software but also implement data encryption and always backup data from time to time. Any significant cybersecurity strategy should be implemented in two aspects.
First of all, you need to invest in strong firewall hardware that prevents cyber crimes from accessing the data.
Secondly, hackers will try to steal all the vital information about your users, this is where data encryption comes into action.
SSL/TLS certificates can help you to encrypt data during online transactions, so hacker cannot be able to decrypt the stolen information such as the customer’s name, age, health insurance details, credit card, social security number, or any other data. You should install high security EV SSL Certificate in your website to secure your patients sensitive data.
Invest in an authentic encryption software that works for all your business devices and encrypt your imperative data. Additionally, always make sure that the software is always activated and update regularly.
Besides encryption, backing up your business data up your business data is another big step to follow. Timely backup of all the data and storing it on the cloud makes it almost impossible to hack the data.
Perform Regular Penetration Testing:
Implementing the powerful penetration tools on your company website makes a great difference. In layman’s language, penetration testing is the practice where hackers use to detect the vital vulnerabilities in your security systems and use them to sneak peek and hack your data.
Whenever a hacker tries to steal your data or even tries to enter your territory, it won’t be that simple. A hacker should go through a series of penetrating login credentials to access your network.
By the time, the hacker tries to enter all the required information you can step in to conquer and rest is history!
However. there are several penetration testing tools you can easily afford. Some of them include Nmap, Acunetix, or Nessus.
Key Notes:
Protecting the data in the Healthcare Industry is no cake walk. No matter how careful we are, hackers always find a way to enter and snatch away the important user data information.
Many organizations do not completely understand the need for cybersecurity and often think as additional investment. But as a matter of fact, cybersecurity is a basic need that every healthcare insurance companies should rely on.
Think form the hackers point of view and act accordingly. Lastly, remember sometimes stepping in the shoes of your enemies is the only way to beat them!!