Privacy & Security
By making patient privacy a top priority, West Virginia United Health System has tackled insider snooping head on using a variety of different strategies. It's already seen some marked success.
The threat from hackers affects all business, but healthcare providers face the additional threat of fines for failure to comply with HIPAA regulations. These fines are no mere speeding ticket.
Changing technology makes HIPAA a moving target. When handled correctly, however, it also serves as a business enabler.
HIPAA created many rules that protect the privacy of patients and ensure the security of healthcare data. But the law left a big loophole regarding third-party entities which legally have access to protected health information from organizations that are required to be HIPAA-compliant.
Some 45,000 people are getting HIPAA breach notification letters after a mental health provider failed to encrypt laptops containing medical data and Social Security numbers.
Healthcare industry, listen up: you're a prime target for cyberattacks. Just ask virtually every IT security expert out there. Or ask Anthem, who learned the hard way.
In what might be the biggest data breach ever reported, Anthem, the nation's second largest health insurer, is notifying as many as 80 million members that hackers penetrated its IT systems and swiped personal data.
A New York healthcare provider is notifying its patients that their medical data has been compromised after one of its business associates reported the theft of an employee-owned laptop and unencrypted smartphone.
Health entities must evolve from security by compliance to defending networks and data assets.
The potential cost of breaches for the healthcare industry could be as much as $5.6 billion annually, according to a new report from Experian, a global information services firm. The report is Experian's second annual data breach forecast across industries.