While having your own identity stolen is stressful and scary, you will likely be even more terrified if someone steals your child’s identity. Child identity theft
Data security is crucial in the healthcare industry because protecting patients’ medical information prevents unauthorized users from obtaining private data. Since patients’ medical data contains their medical history, prescriptions and diagnoses, an unauthorized user who gains access to this data could use it to commit identity theft and medical insurance fraud. According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, the healthcare industry is one of the most targeted industries for cyber attacks and data breaches, with 98% of cybercriminals’ motives being financially driven.
Continue reading to learn why healthcare data security is important, the common security challenges the healthcare industry faces and the best ways to ensure healthcare data security.
Why healthcare data security is important
Because medical organizations store so much sensitive patient data, healthcare data is highly valuable to cybercriminals or those seeking unauthorized access to patients’ medical records. If a patient’s detailed medical history falls into the hands of someone with malicious intentions, it can lead to identity theft and insurance fraud. Since many healthcare organizations have switched from physical records to electronic ones, the overall risk of medical data being stolen in data breaches or other cyber attacks has increased dramatically. Recent malware attacks and data breaches in major medical organizations, such as the Change Healthcare breach, highlight why healthcare data must be protected with the highest levels of security.
Common data security challenges in the healthcare industry
Organizations within the healthcare industry face several challenges related to keeping medical data secure, including outdated technology, weak passwords and inadequate training.
Unpatched and outdated technology
Many hospitals and medical organizations rely on technology that may be too expensive to update or simply isn’t a priority. However, when medical professionals use older technology, security vulnerabilities may not be patched because some older hardware cannot handle the latest software updates. This is why outdated technology is easier for cybercriminals to exploit in data breaches.
Use of weak passwords
If your healthcare organization uses weak passwords, it could lead to data breaches and compromised medical data. Ensure that your employees use strong and unique passwords for each account. Employee passwords should consist of at least 16 characters with a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Make sure your employees do not use repeated letters, numbers or personal information in their passwords, as this makes it easier for hackers to guess. If employees working at hospitals or other medical organizations use weak passwords, there is a higher chance their accounts will become compromised, potentially resulting in unauthorized access to patient data.
Lack of data-security training
Many healthcare professionals are busy and may not take the time to learn proper data-security practices, which is why it’s important to implement security training for your employees. Especially in organizations with hundreds or even thousands of employees, it can be challenging to ensure that everyone understands the best data security practices. Making sure that employees follow password hygiene guidelines and learn how to recognize phishing attempts will reduce your organization’s chances of falling victim to data breaches.
Insecure sharing methods of PHI
Protected Health Information (PHI) should only be sent using secure sharing methods with end-to-end encryption. If your organization allows patients to send medical insurance information via email or messaging apps, it jeopardizes the safety of their private information because these methods are unencrypted. Sharing sensitive information through unencrypted means can allow unauthorized users to intercept it and commit insurance fraud or identity theft. Healthcare professionals should share PHI using secure sharing methods, such as secure file transfers and encrypted messaging.
Human error
Sometimes people make mistakes, but the consequences of human error regarding data security in the healthcare industry can be detrimental to patients’ health and privacy. As a result of human error, your organization could suffer data loss, cyber attacks, data breaches and significant financial loss. Factors that could contribute to human error include employees using weak passwords, falling for phishing scams, sharing sensitive data with the wrong recipient, inadequate security training and more.
Best practices to ensure data security in healthcare
Luckily, your healthcare organization can ensure that internal and patient data is secure by implementing least-privilege access, using end-to-end encryption and enforcing strong password practices.
Implement least-privilege access
Least-privilege access gives authorized users just enough access to the information they need to complete their jobs. It’s important to implement the principle of least privilege because individual employees do not need access to all of your organization’s data. For example, if an employee has access to all patients’ medical records or employee payroll data and their login credentials are compromised, a cybercriminal could access all your organization’s sensitive data.
Limiting employee access based on their role through a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution like KeeperPAM® will reduce the likelihood and severity of a potential data breach. By safeguarding and closely monitoring accounts with privileged access to sensitive information like financial or health data, a PAM solution mitigates the risks of sensitive data being leaked or compromised.
Protect data with end-to-end encryption
End-to-end encryption stops third parties from accessing data sent from one system to another by encrypting messages to keep them private. When your employees share PHI, that data needs to be encrypted at all times because this makes it more challenging for unauthorized users to view, alter or steal patient information through cyber attacks. Data encryption converts readable data into ciphertext, a series of random characters that neither human nor machine can read until it’s been decrypted. This stops cybercriminals from intercepting any PHI, while in transit or at rest, because it remains secure throughout the entire sharing process.
Enforce strong passwords and MFA
Your employees need to use strong passwords and enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on all of their accounts to protect patient and organizational data from being compromised. Enforcing the use of strong passwords will eliminate the habit of using weak or reused passwords, thereby reducing the risk of password-based cyber attacks. Many PAM solutions feature password managers that can generate strong passwords and store them securely.
Beyond using strong passwords, your employees need to enable MFA whenever possible to add an extra layer of protection. MFA requires users to provide an additional form of authentication to access an account beyond their username and password. While having a strong password reduces the risk of an account getting compromised, enabling MFA will stop anyone with your username and password from accessing your account, as they will need another unique form of authentication to log in.
Perform regular penetration testing
Your organization should perform penetration tests regularly to stay protected against data breaches or data leaks. Since cybercriminals prey on security vulnerabilities to access sensitive data, penetration testing simulates a real cyber attack and helps your organization assess weaknesses that a cybercriminal could exploit. Once your organization learns its security flaws, you can work on patching any issues to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. Regularly testing the strength of your security systems will give your organization better insight into how to improve security measures.
Develop an incident response plan
An incident response plan assigns roles and outlines procedures that your employees should follow in the event of a data breach or cyber attack. When you have an incident response plan in place, your organization will be better equipped to identify how a cyber attack occurred, what data was compromised and how to prevent attacks like it in the future. It’s beneficial for your organization to develop an incident response plan before something goes wrong because you don’t want to panic if you suffer a data breach or cyber attack. Having an incident response plan in place minimizes the duration of a cyber attack and the damage it causes to your organization’s data.
Educate and train your staff on security awareness
Your employees need to receive regular training on security awareness topics, such as phishing attempts and online scams. Since your organization handles PHI and sensitive data, employees must be educated on how to protect themselves against phishing scams that could lead to patient data being stolen. Employees are often the weakest link in an organization because security awareness is not taught regularly, so it’s crucial that everyone is educated on how to spot phishing and other cyber threats.
Protect healthcare organizations and patient information
Keep your organizational and patient information protected by using end-to-end encryption, enforcing strong password practices and developing an incident response plan in case anything goes wrong. It’s essential to protect your organization’s sensitive data, given how high a target the healthcare industry is for cyber attacks. Investing in a PAM solution like KeeperPAM can help manage organizational passwords and protect privileged accounts from being compromised by unauthorized users.
Request a demo of KeeperPAM today to discover how a PAM solution can give you more visibility and control over your organization’s sensitive information.