Healthcare organizations of all shapes and sizes need to keep cybersecurity top of mind. Ensuring that security protocols are robust and keep sensitive information secure is always a priority to help prevent HIPAA violations and cybercrimes . Here are 5 tactics that can easily boost your cybersecurity measures.
Read more: HIPAA compliant email
Many cybersecurity experts recommend increasing online security with a robust password policy . Some tactics include using a minimum character count, using both upper and lowercase letters, and not repeating passwords for different accounts. However, healthcare professionals shouldn't create difficult password policies as it may lead to employees writing down their passwords or keeping an unencrypted file with their passwords. That's why HIPAA compliant password managers could be useful for healthcare. Password managers store login information in an encrypted environment. It's a useful tool to help employees remember passwords while keeping them out of the hands of cybercriminals.
Read more: An easier, more secure, and more compliant way to manage passwords
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a critical element to bolstering cybersecurity. While a robust password policy is crucial to prevent hacking, they can still be revealed by data leaks or phishing emails. 2FA adds another layer of verification to your accounts. A person will need to verify their identity by having the correct login information and providing a second authentication code. The code is often sent to their phone number via text or call, a backup email address, or by an authenticator app.
A common scam is for a cybercriminal to pose as an employee with a fake email address (known as display name spoofing ) and request an immediate wire transfer to be sent to a vendor. But the "vendor" is actually the cybercriminal's bank account. Recent healthcare HIPAA violations show that unauthorized wire transfers are a threat to healthcare providers. One way to prevent this scenario from happening is to enable wire transfer verification. Someone should always verify the authenticity of a wire request before it's sent. It's best to call to confirm the request or scrutinize the email correspondence to ensure accuracy.
Read more: How to protect your organization from BEC attacks
Routine backups allow your organization to have a copy of systems and data in the event of hardware failure, accidental deletion, data corruption, or a hacking incident. Backups can make it easier to recover from data failure and keep important files safe. Healthcare organizations should also consider email archiving as part of their routine backups. Archiving is slightly different from simply keeping a copy of emails. Email archiving also allows for emails to be searched for keywords. This makes it easier to find specific emails, which is useful in cases like audit requests or litigation.
Healthcare providers need to ensure that they only send H IPAA compliant email to keep protected health information (PHI) safe from cyberattacks or data breaches. Paubox Email Suite makes it easy for your employees to communicate with patients by automatically enabling encrypted email. Since it seamlessly connects with your current email provider (like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 ), it's simple for employees to use. You can upgrade to our Plus and Premium products to gain access to inbound security tools to stop threats like phishing emails, spam, viruses, and malware from even entering an employee's inbox. Our patented ExecProtect feature also blocks display name spoofing emails from wreaking havoc on your organization.