The Electronic Protected Health Data in your practice is worth THOUSANDS! It has never been more important to lock it down.
Ransomware is no joke. If your data gets into the wrong hands, you may be liable to pay out A LOT of money due to potential HIPAA violations. Ransomware is not going away any time soon and will get much worse before it gets better.
Here are 4 simple tips to protect your practice from ransomware or other spyware/malware that can cause you to lose sleep at night:
- Educate your staff not to click on links in any e-mail received that they were not expecting
- Lock down your network and do not allow ANY non work related browsing or e-mail on the network that your ePHI resides on. (Some practices set up a standalone computer that is not connected to the same network as their EHR system so that in case of a problem, at least they know that no ePHI was compromised).
- BACKUP YOUR ePHI and retain a history of backups. If you do not know how to backup your data, ask your EHR vendor or IT specialist. Even if you use an offsite backup service or an automated backup procedure, it is still important for you to retain your own routine backup. Also, make sure to have your backup checked by your vendor to make sure it actually contains the required data in case a restoration is needed.
- Obtain Cyber Insurance (www.picagroup.com). This insurance covers some or all of HIPAA Breach costs, and has many other benefits.
Just do something! Do not ignore this!
If you do not feel confident that the infrastructure in your office supports complete protection of your ePHI, or you just do not want to be bothered with it, consider switching to our private cloud services. Contact our finance team for a quote.