The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a U.S. law designed to protect individual privacy by establishing national standards for maintaining sensitive patient health information and medical records. HIPAA compliance rules incorporate requirements from several other legislative acts, including the Public Health Service Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

Technology plays a crucial role in the operation of today’s healthcare service organization. Many hospitals are increasing use of modern technologies like mobile computing and cloud services to improve care delivery, resulting in far-reaching impact for doctors and administrators. At the same time, the current COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted almost every aspect of life. The situation has accelerated the adoption of virtual care to stay relevant during the pandemic.

Breaches and cyberattacks are on the rise in the healthcare industry. The recent acceleration of digital technology and connectivity within Healthcare has led to significant patient care delivery improvements, more effective population health management, and better patient outcomes. With this increased technology and connectivity, however, comes increased exposure to cyberattacks that can impact patient care delivery, safety, and privacy.

According to the FDA, 30 percent of clinical trials are flagged for data-integrity violations (i.e. missing source data and corrupted audit trails). The patchwork of evolving regulations, as well as relying on non-compliant consumer-grade technology to handle data collection and storage, are often hurdles in getting your raw data into a format that is submission-ready.

Security threats in healthcare relate to safety of the clinical and administrative information systems of hospitals and healthcare service providers. Increasing cyber attacks on healthcare organisations in the last few years have been faster than the improvements in healthcare cybersecurity practices. In this article, we discuss the cyber security threats and vulnerabilities of hospitals and healthcare providers, followed by best security practices aimed at improving security posture.

At Bulletproof, we know that different people learn in different ways. So when a healthcare provider came to us needing an innovative, engaging way of delivering security awareness training, we stood ready to deliver. The healthcare provider in question was St Andrews Healthcare – providers of specialist care for people with challenging mental health needs. Being a company that works with vulnerable individuals, staff awareness of cyber security is essential.

In late October, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) co-authored an advisory report on the latest tactics used by cybercriminals to target the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector. In the report, CISA, FBI, and HHS noted the discovery of, “…credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, is designed to keep individuals’ medical information and health records safe. Healthcare organizations must ensure HIPAA compliance, even — perhaps especially — during the current global pandemic. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S.

Pan Chaudhury created Perry Health in 2017 to streamline healthcare delivery. He and his co-founders envisioned a digital health tool to assist healthcare providers in managing chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension by coordinating care and communication. Perry Health supports better healthcare outcomes by monitoring and engaging with patients when they’re not in the doctor’s office.

Covered entities bound by law to follow HIPAA regulations – like healthcare providers, health plans, and others handling protected health information (PHI) – need to demonstrate efforts to secure PHI. The specific measures required to do so are detailed in the HIPAA security rule which states that covered entities must put controls into place to identify and protect against anticipated threats to the security and integrity of PHI.