As an organization in the healthcare industry, you already know you’re at a higher target for threats because of the information you store and transmit. Most hospitals do their due diligence to set up security standards to protect patient information from outside threats, but then often underestimate the exponential risk of threats that can happen within the organization.

Even as states begin to lift some of the COVID-19 restrictions and businesses begin to reopen, healthcare organizations still face many of the same challenges presented at the beginning of this pandemic.

Identity attacks threaten organizations every day. In the wake of COVID-19, more hackers are taking advantage of the new challenges brought on by the pandemic through fraud schemes, email phishing and compromising user access. Hospital employees continue to be one of the biggest targets for phishing, with hackers consistently targeting user credentials to gain access into a system.

The rising concern of COVID-19 has shaken everyone, and we’ve already seen the impact it has had on our grocery supplies, tradeshows and events, daily outings, and on businesses. We recognize that this situation has impacted many people in numerous ways, including most people now working from home. That’s why we’d like to offer a few tips to help you work in this reomote environment and keep business moving.

Weeks before the 2020 HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition was due to begin on March 9-13, we shared these tips to have a successful HIMSS20 conference. As we all now know, HIMSS20 (and basically every other conference in the near term) has been cancelled due to COVID-19.

We just wrapped up the month of October supporting National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the emphasis focused on the mantras of Own IT, Secure IT, Protect IT as it relates to your personal and patient data. As a leader in Patient Privacy, we were proud to participate in National Cybersecurity Awareness month, and share many educational resources throughout the month. Each week during the month we focused on a different topic to give you tips for what hospital leaders (and in some cases, you personally) can do to improve cybersecurity protection.

It is said that a heart attack is 80% preventable by eating well, exercising regularly, and keeping stress to a minimum*. While there is no official statistic yet, I would say that a cyber-attack is 95% preventable by vetting partners well, exercising caution, and keeping access points to a minimum. 

Without conjuring up dramatic images of a zombie apocalypse, the healthcare IT industry finds itself in yet another unprecedented time period. In this post-EHR era (as some call it) we have largely achieved the goal of digitizing health records. According to adoption statistics at health.gov, 96% of hospitals had certified EHR technology by the end of 2015. Since the implementation frenzy first brought about by Meaningful Use, EHR sales have slowed down — apart from the steady change fueled by the ongoing consolidation of hospital systems.