Unfortunately other cyber threats exist that can be worse than a breach of your practice’s protected health information (PHI).
We can help your practice stay on top of the latest health care news, rules, regulations and trends. Subscribe to stay current and up to date on important matters that will impact your practice. (To subscribe to our blog Click Here).
It’s no secret that healthcare breaches have been on the rise in frequency and in severity. What you may not know is that there are other cyber threats that are potentially more damaging to your healthcare practice, and to the industry as a whole.
Some of these threats include:
- Wiper Attacks – Deletion or ‘wiping’ of software or all data by hackers is an increasing problem in the healthcare industry.
- Ransomware – More and more healthcare practices have had their data stolen and then received a demand for payment to get the data back.
- Monetary Theft – It is increasingly common that hackers are stealing the identity of office personnel and wiring money in small amounts to an outside account.
- Destruction of Data – Many healthcare practices’ devices can be destroyed by code or software.
- Manipulation of Data – Possibly more dangerous than data destruction is the manipulation of data in the healthcare field. Hackers have the capability to change patient information, diagnosis, treatment information, etc.
- Theft of Intellectual Property – You can almost guarantee that any intellectual property of any value on the web will be hacked or stolen.
- Distributed Denial of Service Attacks – Previously these were not considered to be a major problem, however now, it is greatly concerning that healthcare entities can be knocked offline so easily by hackers.
It is essential that you contemplate the risks of all cyber security threats and breaches when updating your HIPAA Risk Assessment.
We help our clients tailor their security measures to best protect against all cyber crime.
In our next blog post, we will keep you informed of related issues. To get this important information delivered directly to your mail box, Click here to Subscribe
Do you need help staying current and compliant with the latest laws, rules and regulations? We can help. To contact us about your practice’s risk assessment or about your other legal needs: CLICK HERE.
P.S. If you or your patients are interested in consumer healthcare issues, check out myhealthspin.com.
