Cybersecurity
Hackers Want Your Medical Records Because
- Your medical records are worth more to hackers than your credit card.
- Hacking a medical practice or hospital’s systems is remarkably easy.
- Criminals are aware that medical facilities tend to invest money in equipment used to treat patients rather than in IT and security infrastructure.
The average social security number can be purchased on the dark web for around $15, but a medical record with all of the personal information attached can go for $60 or more.
If a criminal can get his or her hands on information that you have collected on your patients, they can use it to create fake identities that could allow them to buy (and resell) medical equipment or drugs, or they could combine a patient number with a false provider number and file fake claims . And because those records often contain addresses, phone numbers and employment history, criminals can also use this information to file fake tax returns.
How Are You Prepared For The Cyber Security Crisis?
Is Your Plan To Hope It Does Not Happen To You?
The growth and sophistication of cybercriminals, ransomware and hacker attacks has reached epic levels, and shows no signs of slowing down, in fact Cyber crime damages are projected to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. The Odds are greater than ever and increasing with each year that you will get hit, it’s just a matter of time.
If You Fall Victim To A Cyber-Attack By
No Fault Of Your Own, Will They Label You
Careless…Or Just Irresponsible?
Do You Perhaps Think That Claiming Ignorance Of Compliance Regulations Is The Solution ? It’s EXTREMELY unfair, isn’t it? Victims of all other crimes – burglary, rape, mugging, carjacking, theft – get sympathy from others. They are called “victims” and support comes flooding in, as it should
But if your business is the victim of a cyber crime attack where YOUR patient data is compromised, you will NOT get such sympathy. You will be labeled careless and irresponsible. You may even be investigated and questioned about what you did to prevent this from happening – and if the answer is not adequate, you can be found liable, facing serious fines and lawsuits EVEN IF you have protections in place. Claiming ignorance is not an acceptable defense, and this giant, expensive and potentially reputation-destroying nightmare will land squarely on YOUR shoulders. But the nightmare does not end there.
According to the laws, you will be required to inform your patients that YOU exposed Private Health Information to cyber criminals. If it becomes public, your competition will have a heyday over this. Clients will be IRATE and demand Stolen Identity protection at the very least . Morale will tank and employees may even blame YOU. Your bank is NOT required to replace funds stolen due to cyber crime (go ask them), and unless you have a very specific type of insurance policy, any financial losses will be denied coverage. Insurance companies are now coming up with legal ways to keep from having to pay up, For example yes you had antivirus, but was it up to date? And since the AV was not up to date,….
Do You Believe Being Proactive About Security Will Simply Be To Costly? Reconsider The Above Alternative Again.
Please do NOT underestimate the importance and likelihood of these threats.
HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOUR MEDICAL PRACTICE?
- Hire Reputable, Experienced & Dependable IT Healthcare System Administrators.
physicians are not alike why would you expect system admins to be? Just as there are specialist in the medical field so there are specialist in the IT field.
we believe the only way is a holistic approach to IT MANAGEMENT its not enough to treat symptoms over and over again, prevention and solid IT practices is the only way.
HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE THE RIGHT TEAM?
1.ARE THEY FOCUSED ON HEALTHCARE IT RELATED PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS ALL DAY EVERYDAY? Versus switching on the fly incoherently, between restaurant support, insurance support, banking support and any other type of support they happen to find a customer for. Hey we are all great at something but rarely are we great at everything, it just makes sense to choose a specialist.
2. WHAT TYPE OF SYSTEMS DO THEY HAVE IN PLACE FOR MANAGING YOUR NETWORK? Just winging things by the seat of the pants is not enough anymore because a hacker just needs to be lucky one time. A system admin has to be vigilant all the time! and the only way to to that is to have systems in place 24/7
Systems For Communications– How does the system admin monitor each and every device on your network?
Systems For Security- Is there a layered approach to security, are the most basic things like Anti virus & Windows updates managed and documented versus left to auto updates
Systems For Help Desk- How does your staff reach the help desk quickly and reliably? Is there documentation and reports on tickets and resolution times.
we can get nerdy and spew out a bunch technical terms and confusing acronyms here , but why? you need the best in your corner fighting for you. Call us and give us the chance to impress you with our actions , not words!
