This article is about why it is critical for healthcare facilities to have good cyber security. It’s going to go over hackers using creative ways to steal data, protecting patients information, and using insecure emails and mobile apps.
Why Hackers Hack
Hackers have been improving their ways to find loopholes in your systems and networks. The data they stole is greatly appreciated and rewarding to them. The hackers will sell the healthcare data on the black market, could use it in fraud, use it in illegal financial transactions, sell it to other criminals, and they could sell the data to a foreign country. Over the years the healthcare facilities have been failing to protect the information.
Strong Security System
The best way for the hackers not being able to get the data, the facilities need the best security experts to protect the information. With the experts protecting the data, the hackers would have a harder time trying to get the information. Hackers can use anything to get into the healthcare’s database to get anybody’s information just from someone downloading or checking something that could wait until they get to their house. There is nothing that important to download or check for someone to get their information stolen just because you thought it was important to do while in the healthcare facility. So please don’t do anything like that, that way nobody’s information can get stolen.
Protecting Your Information
Protecting patients’ information is incredibly important and should be a priority for healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilities need penetration testing services conducted once a month to check to see if the patients information are being protected or not. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is one of the main federal laws that protect your healthcare information. Healthcare facilities and other key people and organizations that handle your health information have to protect it with passwords, encryption, and other technical safeguards because it’s against your healthcare privacy rights. You should always use common sense to make sure that your private information doesn’t become public. Even though it is protected by federal laws.
Staying Smart and Secure
Insecure emails and mobile apps should not be used while in the healthcare facilities. The reason is that if you use the healthcare facility’s computer to check your email it could invite ways for hackers to get your information and everyone else information off the computer just from you using an email that was unsecured. Even if a doctor or nurse sends you an email to get information, do not send it back. Print the document off and write the information on it then give it to the nurse or doctor that was asking for it. You never know if the person that sent you that email is or isn’t a doctor or nurse.
So just be careful with who you give your healthcare information to unless you want your information sold on the black market, sold to another criminal, or foreign country. Which pretty sure everyone doesn’t want any of that to happen to them. Mobile apps are bad also so don’t keep your personal information on your phone. The apps can easily have a way for a hacker or hackers to get your personal information off your phone. So make sure you are careful on what apps you have on your phone. It all comes down to you have to make sure you protect your information.
Conclusion
This article was about how healthcare facilities need to have good cyber security in place. It went over hackers using creative ways to steal data, protecting patients information, and using insecure emails and mobile apps. Make sure you implement these ideas into your healthcare company or make sure you choose a healthcare company you can trust.
