As healthcare information security requirements and penalties get tougher, a great deal of discussion is focused around how well the healthcare industry is securing patient data.

The general consensus is that the industry still has a long way to go. One of the industry’s publications, Healthcare InfoSecurity, released the results of the Healthcare Information Security Today survey sponsored by RSA which took an in-depth look at security and IT practices of senior executives in the healthcare industry.

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The survey reviews many information security topics including

• Impact of a data breach
• Security threats
• Compliance and steps to improve security
• Risk assessment

Some of the responses surprised us on how far healthcare companies need to go for proper HIPAA compliance. Take a look at these statistics:

• 55% of respondents were not confident in their organization’s ability to comply with HIPAA and HITECH Act regulations concerning privacy and security (grading themselves adequate or less).
• 66% responded that their organization’s ability to counter internal information security threats was adequate or less.
• Only 47% of survey participants utilize encryption for information accessible via a virtual private network or portal.
• 32% of respondents have not conducted a detailed information technology security risk assessment/analysis within the past year with 47% updating their risk assessment only periodically.

The good news is that the survey shows that healthcare organizations are taking steps in the right direction to improve their security practices.

• 37% of organizations’ budgets for information security are scheduled to increase over the next year.
• 40% of respondents plan to implement audit tool or a log management solution within the next year.

When asked what their organization’s top three information security priorities are for the coming year, the top responses included

• Improving regulatory compliance efforts
• Improving security awareness/education
• Preventing and detecting breaches

Healthcare IT teams will need updated security policies, comprehensive training for employees, and reliable tools and solutions that can deliver functionality, ease of use, audit reporting, and efficient workflows that protect the security of confidential data at rest and in motion.

The pressure is growing, compliance audits are looming, and tackling these issues are just part of the evolution of the healthcare industry.

Jennifer Phillips

Jennifer Phillips is a technology blogger and social media expert. With a focus on the data security and the IBM i market, she has over 10 years of experience writing for publications on technology solutions.

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As thousands of harried spouses and romantically entangled Americans scramble to find the right Valentine’s Day gifts this week, many are pulling out the credit cards and ordering online or over the phone or waiting in line to swipe their debit cards at the florist or candy store.  That’s a lot of personal data zooming through cyberspace, which can make the perfect gift for hackers.

One of the compliance regulations that controls how merchants and others handle credit card data is PCI DSS, established to prevent, detect and react to unauthorized access to personal payment information.  The standards are strict and penalties can be stiff.

The challenge comes when retailers, overwhelmed with busy shopping seasons and lines of customers, have so many things to manage that their vigilance protecting customer data can lose priority.  And yet, it just takes one misstep to open the doors to a data breach.

That’s why it’s critical that retailers and other organizations who handle credit card information regularly assess their data protection policies and processes, and implement effective encryption and data transfer tools that can automate the process of keeping data secure so they can focus on keeping their customers happy.

Check out this story in today’s Omaha World Herald about the challenges businesses of all sizes face when trying to avoid a costly data breach.  And for more information about how Linoma Software can help keep your data safe at rest and in motion, email Solutions@LinomaSoftware.com.

Susan Baird

Susan is the Marketing Manager at Linoma Software, helping promote our secure file transfer and encryption solutions. Her specialty is content creation and social media marketing.

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Yet another layer of regulation has been added to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that offers even greater protection for healthcare patients’ privacy, while also defining new rights regarding how they can access their health records.

The biggest change is the expansion of HIPAA compliance requirements to include trading partners and third parties who also handle patient data, such as billing companies, contractors, and more.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that these third parties have been responsible for several significant data breaches which is one reason the responsibility for compliance has been extended to this group.

Penalties for violating HIPAA compliance rules will be assessed based on the determined level of negligence, and can go as high as $1.5 million per incident.

Other issues addressed with the latest additions to the HIPAA regulations include more clarity in defining which types of breaches need to be reported, as well as how patients will be allowed to access and interact with their health records electronically.

If you’re concerned about whether your FTP server meets compliance regulations, join us for a webinar on Thursday, Jan. 31 at Noon Central entitled “Get Your FTP Server in Compliance!”  You can learn more about the agenda for this webinar here.

For more information about the new HIPAA rules, check out the press release from HHS.

Susan Baird

Susan is the Marketing Manager at Linoma Software, helping promote our secure file transfer and encryption solutions. Her specialty is content creation and social media marketing.

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Stories of data breaches across all industries continue to make the news, and nowhere is the pressure greater to keep data safe than on healthcare IT managers.

Healthcare IT News states that health data breaches increased by 97% in 2011. The 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon’s RISK team confirmed that over 174 million records were reported as compromised, mostly as the result of hackers accessing the data. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center 2011 Breach Stats Report, 20% of all data breaches in 2011 were in the healthcare industry.

What is most startling about this report is that, according to the RISK study, 97% of these cases could have been avoided through simple or intermediate security controls.  The graphic (see right) is one of the many included in Verizon’s study.

Because the most common place where data is compromised is from corporate databases and web servers, hackers who gain access to these vulnerable areas are mining this data for private information such as social security numbers, birthdates and credit card information.

Studies like these underscore the importance of establishing network security perimeters and implementing procedures that protect the privacy of  patients’ information residing on these servers.

IT managers must be vigilant to combat hackers’ ever more sophisticated tools and methods, and that begins with better security procedures at the office.

Security Policy and Procedures Document

The first step in ramping up security is to write and formalize a security policy and procedures document that addresses best practice protocols and that encompasses applicable HIPAA and HITECH regulations.

Next, all employees must be trained and expectations for compliance made clear,  because it takes a concerted effort on everyone’s part to ensure the required protections are implemented consistently.

Secure Data Files In Motion

One of the more popular ways for hackers to capture sensitive data is via the movement of files and documents across the Internet.  In an earlier blog post, we talked about how standard FTP is commonly used to send files.  However, FTP sends the files in unencrypted form, and offers no protection for the server’s login credentials. Once those credentials are captured, hackers can use them to access the FTP server to mine additional data files.

While managing the security of all of the files in the office may seem overwhelming, Managed File Transfer solutions can simplify this task. Used in conjunction with a reverse proxy gateway, a much greater security perimeter is formed around the network, servers and the sensitive data that need protection.

Daniel Cheney

Daniel has been the IT Director at a healthcare company for the last 12 years and a longtime beneficiary of GoAnywhere Director and the IBM i platform. He is also a technical analyst and writer for various technical and social media projects with Humanized Communications.

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An injury that doesn’t happen needs no treatment. An emergency that doesn’t occur requires no response. An illness that doesn’t develop demands no remedy. The best way to stay safe … is to avoid getting into trouble in the first place. That requires planning, training, leadership, good judgment, and accepting responsibility—in short, risk management.  

– Boy Scout Field Book

Insurance companies are the experts at analyzing and managing risk. They identify, quantify and set pricing based on the calculated costs of risk. Naturally, the higher the perceived risk, the higher the cost to mitigate the potential losses.

Yet here is the irony.  While those in the insurance industry excel at evaluating risk management for their clients, they often neglect risk mitigation within their own operation.

Exposed data is serious risk

The insurance industry collects and analyzes overwhelming amounts of data. This often sensitive and confidential information becomes the basis upon which many critical decisions are made, and which produces the competitive advantage to provide better policies, prices, and solutions to the market.

All of this data, both historical and cutting-edge, is truly the lifeblood of the insurance industry. Therefore, the astute management and protection of this data is the infrastructure of arteries and veins delivering this lifeblood to all of the appendages of the company that need the results of this data compilation.

In addition, this sensitive and private information is disseminated to various internal and external associates, customers, partners and collaborators usually via the Internet, which exposes this data to compromise.

And yet, despite their expertise in risk analysis, many in the insurance industry fail to ask these questions:

• Given how much data we’re exchanging with clients, partners, financial institutions, healthcare organizations, etc., what is our risk of a data breach?
• What is our liability if we suffer a data breach?
• What can be done to mitigate potential losses?

When examined this way, any underwriter would agree that failure to adequately protect the sensitive data continually in transit in an insurance company’s daily workflow presents an extremely high risk.

Insurance industry, heal thyself

If data really is the lifeblood of the insurance business, and the data center is at the heart of the company, then the arteries and veins are the methods of moving that data to and from your departments, clients, business partners, and others.

While adding layers of physical security to the data center is a top priority for insurance IT professionals, securing the pathways in and out of that data center tends to be overlooked, despite media coverage of data breaches at companies worldwide.   This lack of action underestimates the extent of the public’s concern that their private data may be compromised, and state and federal efforts to more strictly regulate data storage and transfer policies.

Effectively managing FTP transactions is essential to mitigating the risks of data loss.  The costs of implementing managed file transfer solutions are minimal and provide tremendous flexibility when striving to meet the requirements of trading partners and compliance regulations.

As the insurance industry knows better than anyone, the best approach is to mitigate risk with a cost efficient solution.  In this case, taking direct action to protect data transfers is the obvious prescription for any organization — especially one based on risk management.

Daniel Cheney

Daniel has been the IT Director at a healthcare company for the last 12 years and a longtime beneficiary of GoAnywhere Director and the IBM i platform. He is also a technical analyst and writer for various technical and social media projects with Humanized Communications.

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