• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

  • COVID-19
  • Opinion
  • Health IT
    • Behavioral Health
    • Care Coordination
    • EMR/EHR
    • Interoperability
    • Patient Engagement
    • Population Health Management
    • Revenue Cycle Management
    • Social Determinants of Health
  • Digital Health
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Blockchain
    • Mobile Health
    • Precision Medicine
    • Telehealth
    • Wearables
  • Startups
  • M&A
  • Value-based Care
    • Accountable Care (ACOs)
    • Medicare Advantage
  • Life Sciences
  • Research

5 Essentials to Reduce Healthcare Data Breaches

by HITC Staff 11/07/2014 Leave a Comment

Security Data Breaches

According to the 2014 Healthcare Breach Report from Bitglass, the total number of healthcare data breaches per year has remained fairly constant for the past three years—averaging about 200 breaches per year. About 6x as many credit card numbers as medical records are stolen each year. Healthcare data breaches are a big deal for healthcare consumers, the cost of breaking the rules is steep: Up to $50,000 per HIPAA violation, or up to $1,500,000 per calendar year per identical violation. In one notable case, an employee of Mass General Hospital accidentally left a file folder on the subway that ended up costing the provider $1 million dollars in fines due to the folder containing the PHI of 192 patients.  

Fortunately, healthcare providers have some powerful tools, when it comes to protecting PHI. Today, emerging security technologies, like Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs), allow organizations to take a data-centric approach to cloud and mobile security.

When you put these solutions into place, you can take device loss or theft out of the equation, and offer true PHI security:

1. Establish comprehensive IT visibility and control over data transactions.

Emerging technologies known as CASBs , proxy traffic to and from corporate cloud applications and mobile devices, and are essential for any healthcare organization concerned about regulatory compliance and audits. They reverse proxy services are completely transparent to users, and do the heavy lifting of inspecting and
securing data, logging activities as they occur, and alerting IT immediately to unusual or unauthorized behavior. Saving IT the headache and man hours.

2. Control the flow of information

Securing personal smart phones and tablets is much harder than securing company-managed devices—so take the focus off the devices
themselves, and focus on securing the actual data. Today, it’s possible to block sensitive information from being downloaded to certain devices, through a set of rules that syntactically and contextually recognize PHI. To maintain HIPAA compliance, your solution must dynamically detect and redact PHI as data flows to BYOD clients.

3. Track and protect sensitive data anywhere it goes. 

With today’s technology, you can place a digital watermark on all sensitive information, allowing you to track the information, see who downloaded it and see what they do with it. When staff members leave the organization, you can selectively wipe corporate data from their personal devices without disturbing any personal data or invading their privacy. Something MDM solutions can’t do.

4. Deploy a Single Sign-On (SSO) solution throughout your organization. 

SSO solutions deter hackers who may take advantage of common password habits, such as using the same password for different services, or keeping a sticky note underneath the keyboard. They automatically redirect staff to a company login page on the way to accessing any company application. One login—one password. So healthcare workers can focus on saving lives, rather than on logging into the system.

5. Make data security easy to deploy and use. 

No IT organization has money to burn— healthcare organizations least of all. Cloud applications and mobile devices are ultimately designed to save time and money, so the process of securing them needs to make financial and administrative sense, as well. Any security solution should deploy and scale easily, and with minimal administrative overhead.

Tagged With: Healthcare Data Breaches

Get in-depth healthcare technology analysis and commentary delivered straight to your email weekly

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to HIT Consultant

Latest insightful articles delivered straight to your inbox weekly.

Submit a Tip or Pitch

Most Popular

Survey: Clinician Burnout Is A Public Health Crisis Demanding Urgent Action

17 Execs Share How Health IT Can Address Clinician Burnout, Staffing, & Capacity

Q/A: Dr. Johnson Talks Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Care

Q/A: Dr. Johnson Talks Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Care

Northwell Health Extends Contract with Allscripts Sunrise Platform Through 2027

Northwell to Deploy Epic Enterprise EHR Platform Across System

Sanofi Cuts Price of Lantus Insulin by 78% & Caps Out of Pocket Costs at $35 for All Patients

Sanofi Cuts Price of Lantus Insulin by 78% & Caps Out of Pocket Costs at $35 for All Patients

Pfizer Acquires Seagen for $43B to Tackle Cancer

Pfizer Acquires Seagen for $43B to Tackle Cancer

5 Key Trends Driving Purchasing Decisions in Healthcare IT

5 Key Trends Driving Purchasing Decisions in Healthcare IT

Sanofi to Acquire Diabetes Therapy Maker Provention Bio for $2.9B

Sanofi to Acquire Diabetes Therapy Maker Provention Bio for $2.9B

Dr. Arti Masturzo

Q/A: Dr. Masturzo Talks Addressing Food Insecurity with Patients

Transcarent Acquires 98point6 AI-Powered Virtual Care Platform and Care Business

Transcarent Acquires 98point6 AI-Powered Virtual Care Platform and Care Business

Eli Lilly Cuts Insulin Prices by 70%, Caps Patient Costs at $35 Per Month

Eli Lilly Cuts Insulin Prices by 70%, Caps Patient Costs at $35 Per Month

Secondary Sidebar

Footer

Company

  • About Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Reprints and Permissions
  • 2023 Editorial Calendar
  • Submit An Op-Ed
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Editorial Coverage

  • Opinion
  • Health IT
    • Care Coordination
    • EMR/EHR
    • Interoperability
    • Population Health Management
    • Revenue Cycle Management
  • Digital Health
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Blockchain Tech
    • Precision Medicine
    • Telehealth
    • Wearables
  • Startups
  • Value-Based Care
    • Accountable Care
    • Medicare Advantage

Connect

Subscribe to HIT Consultant Media

Latest insightful articles delivered straight to your inbox weekly

Copyright © 2023. HIT Consultant Media. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy |