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What is a firewall and does your healthcare business need one?

Chloe Bowen September 11, 2020

Email cybersecurity

What is a firewall and does your healthcare business need one?

What Is a Firewall? - Paubox

A firewall is a common term that you will hear in computing. But what does it do, and do you need it for your healthcare business? Let’s explore how it can help you stay HIPAA compliant.

Definition

A firewall is a line of defense from cyber-attacks like email phishing attacks that may contain viruses , malware , and other security threats. Firewalls are a network security system designed to protect valuable data, including protected health information (PHI) . Firewalls work by securing a network and ensuring that information is safe while transmitting communications, including monitoring outbound and inbound emails. SEE ALSO: What is Email Spam and How It Can Harm Your Business Firewalls are a good way to safeguard PHI and protect your business from cyberattacks, even if you have an email network that only communicates internally within your organization.

Outbound firewalls

An outbound firewall controls what information network users access on the Internet. The firewall may block specific websites that contain malicious software. This helps keep your network secure and your PHI safe. Outbound firewalls can also prevent employees from accessing email servers if it’s not necessary for their jobs.

Inbound firewalls

An inbound firewall protects a network against incoming traffic from the Internet, such as email or other network segments. Firewalls and spam filters exist to analyze and flag incoming emails for possible security breaches. Malicious emails can cause significant harm to your healthcare business. From viruses to scams, you need to protect yourself from falling into these technological traps.

Why standard email encryption isn’t enough for HIPAA compliance

Emails have multiple points where hackers can compromise them. To be safe and avoid a HIPAA violation , you need to cover all of your bases and make sure you are sending HIPAA compliant email. Normally if an email is sent to a recipient's email address that does not support TLS encryption, the message is stripped of encryption and delivered unencrypted in clear text to the receiver’s inbox—giving hackers the opportunity to intercept the email. In fact, Google’s own data shows that 13% of emails sent with Gmail are delivered unencrypted .

How Paubox can help

With Paubox Email Suite , all emails are encrypted by default. This eliminates the possibility of human error, which can cause people to send sensitive emails without encryption, making them susceptible to hacking. When a recipient’s email address does not support TLS encryption, Paubox software blocks the email from being delivered in plain text and instead moves the email to a secure web app. This only adds one additional click for the recipient to view the email and ensures that you stay HIPAA compliant. Paubox Email Suite Plus comes with inbound security solutions that block malicious email and spam from ever hitting the inbox. It also comes with ExecProtect , which solves the problem of display name spoofing. The software flags emails if they don’t match the exact employee email address, so the malicious email never reaches the recipient. For maximum security, our DLP software is available with Paubox Email Suite Premium . DLP monitors, detects, and prevents unauthorized senders from accidentally or maliciously emailing data whose disclosure could put your organization at risk.

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