HealthTap organizations must implement a robust security posture to guarantee patients’ data remains safe from hackers and other intruders. This involves using both basic and advanced measures to safeguard patient information from external attacks.
Therefore, the health sector is a prime target for cyberattacks and faces numerous cybersecurity challenges. This review examines key cybersecurity threats facing this industry, its solutions adopted to combat them, as well as areas that need improvement to better prepare it against future attacks.
Security and Privacy
One of the most crucial security and privacy challenges facing healthcare organizations is safeguarding sensitive patient information. This includes protected health information (PHI), financial data, as well as intellectual property.
Cyberattacks on patient records can result in heavy fines under HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules, as well as damage your organization’s reputation and cause financial losses.
In today’s digital world, healthcare organizations are becoming more vulnerable to online attacks. These attacks can disrupt work processes and expose confidential patient data.
Healthcare staff often put cybersecurity last on their priority list due to long working hours and tight deadlines. Without sufficient time or resources to learn about online threats, cybersecurity may fall by the wayside.
Healthcare organizations must ensure their employees adhere to a consistent set of cybersecurity practices and procedures. This includes keeping a strong password and not clicking on suspicious links or emails. Furthermore, healthcare organizations should record data so they can quickly detect unauthorized actions with patient files in case of a breach.
Access Control
Access control systems are essential to protect information and resources from unauthorized access. They form the basis of data security, identity management, and network and device protection.
Policy-based access controls provide employees with permission to utilize applications based on their roles and job responsibilities, enhancing productivity while protecting sensitive data. This promotes data security as well.
Access control comes in many forms, such as role-based and rule-based. Both of these methods are widely employed security measures.
Role-based Access Control (RBAC) is a popular method that utilizes organizational roles to grant access to resources. This approach differs from the traditional DAC (discretionary access control), which assigns access rights based on each user’s identity.
Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is a dynamic model that evaluates access based on specific attributes and environmental conditions such as time of day or location. These rules are evaluated in real-time to guarantee access is granted or denied as appropriate.
Data Storage
Data generation in the healthcare industry is at an all-time high. Intel anticipates that worldwide health data will reach 25,000 petabytes by 2020.
Healthcare databases are prime targets for hackers, as protected health information (PHI) cannot be deleted or hidden like credit card numbers can. As a result, hackers often target healthcare databases.
HIPAA requires healthcare organizations to implement adequate data security measures, yet many fail to do so. This oversight has serious repercussions for an organization’s reputation and must be addressed.
Healthcare establishments should utilize encryption at both rest and transit to reduce the risk of data breaches. This solution scrambles sensitive files so they can only be viewed by authorized personnel.
Another way to reduce the risk of data breach is creating a written policy regarding how long to store. This will help avoid storing outdated information that could easily be removed or stolen.
Reporting
HealthTap provides its members with direct access to physicians via video, voice and text chat on any device. Its technology-driven format aims to increase member engagement, reduce costs and enhance medical outcomes.
The company also utilizes AI to offer Doctor A.I., a symptom triage tool. This program will evaluate patient symptoms and suggest next steps for diagnosis and treatment based on their personal profile.
Healthcare can be expensive, and many people cannot afford it. This makes it challenging for individuals to receive the care that meets their individual needs.
Conclusion
HealthTap is one of the leading companies in this industry that strives to make affordable, quality primary care accessible for everyone. To accomplish this goal, they are continuously innovating – including offering advertising-free solutions. Their services have already caught the attention of large corporations, health networks, and individuals looking for improved healthcare access.