Tag: HIPAA | SpinSafe

What Doctors Wish You Knew About HIPAA and Data Security

August 9, 2023/in Computer Security

A former Department of Homeland Security adviser and a doctor, Chris Pierson is CEO of BlackCloak, a company that specializes in personal digital protection from financial fraud, cybercrime, reputational damage, and identity theft. He believes vigilance is key for doctors and patients alike.

Protect Your Entire Family

“I don’t think people realize that once someone is able to get just one piece of information, that can lead to opening others’ private data,” Pierson says. “It’s no longer the original individual on their computer, but additional family members’ identity that can be compromised.”

He explains that even if one organization keeps your data safe, another associated one may not, and that’s where criminals will strike.

“It’s not just medical offices. It’s your pharmacy, labs, insurance company, anyone who keeps personal information. That has real value, and selling it is the priority.”

Victims of identity theft can be revictimized when personal information gets into multiple hands. A street address and verified phone number can go far, especially if the phone contains many contacts, who then become vulnerable to attack themselves.

“If you get Mom’s info, you can get the child’s as well. An ID card, social security, all of it, and then they have the ability to collect false medical claims or just extortion. It’s a two for one.”

Two-Factor Authentication Is Worth the Effort

Pierson mentions how critically important it is to use a multistep authentication system. Your level of protection goes up considerably just by using secure passwords and one-time authentication codes.

Thankfully, setting all this up is easier than it sounds. Apps on your phone or tablet can help. Google Authenticator, when paired with a service that supports authenticator apps, provides a six-digit number that changes every few seconds and can keep people out of your data even if they have your username and password. Other companies ask users to enter an SMS code as the second authentication factor, in addition to a password, although SMS codes are less secure than authenticator apps. Either approach is better than none—unless a hacker is in physical possession of your…

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HIPAA requires ‘timely response’ for security incidents, says alert to health sector

October 28, 2022/in Computer Security

People wait outside a hospital emergency room in Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Not only will a timely response to security incidents prevent and reduce recovery time from cyberattacks, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires covered entities to implement policies to address incidents, according to the cyber bulletin from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights.

To OCR, the rise of hacking incidents across all sectors is cause for concern. About 74% of all healthcare data breaches reported to the agency in 2021 involved hacking or IT incidents, which makes hacking “the greatest threat to the privacy and security of protected health information.”

Consider the latest spate of cyberattacks and related periods of electronic health record downtime in healthcare. The outage at OakBend Medical Center in Texas lasted for about three weeks and led to care diversion during the initial days, as well as the theft of patient data. Patients were also hit with fraud attempts in the wake of the incident.

Meanwhile, CommonSpirit Health was struck with ransomware on Oct. 3 and has led to care disruptions at a portion of its 700 care sites and 142 hospitals across the country. Local media outlets note that many of these impacted hospitals are still working to recover several weeks after the attack. CommonSpirit has not issued an update since Oct. 17.

Based on the financial reports of health systems following several weeks of network outages, cyberattacks can cost upwards of $1 million per each day of downtime. For Scripps Health, a month of downtime after its 2021 cyberattack cost $122.7 million in lost revenue and recovery.

“Security incidents will almost inevitably occur during the lifetime of a regulated entity,” OCR officials wrote. Adhering to the HIPAA-required security incident response plan can enable providers to effectively pivot and recover from potential cyber incidents.

These plans should include methods for identifying and responding to security incidents, as well as mitigating possible harmful impacts and documenting each incident and the outcomes.

Incident response processes should begin with forming a team with…

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