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Data security is quickly becoming one of the most pressing security issues of our time. With ransomware attacks causing millions of dollars worth of damage, it’s never been more important to keep your data secure.
This is especially important for the healthcare industry. In healthcare, there are very strict laws regarding the confidentiality of data. If unauthorized people get access to your patient’s data, it could have serious legal consequences for you and your organization.
This article explains exactly why healthcare data security is so important and lists some of the steps you can take to ensure your data is always secure.
Confidentiality
People have the right for their medical records to remain confidential. Data security in healthcare is vital if you want to achieve this. When patient’s data falls into the wrong hands, they may be able to take legal action.
Not only can breaching confidentiality cause you legal problems, but it could also cause reputational damage. Future patients may be more reluctant to divulge things, and they might fear their medical records being leaked.
Integrity
Not only is it important that your data remains confidential you also need to take steps to ensure it’s properly preserved. Medical records are a vital part of diagnostics, and badly preserved medical records could result in an incomplete picture of an individual’s condition.
Compliance software is a great way to ensure that the integrity of your data is never compromised.
You Need Backups
If you want to secure your data, it’s important that you have a good backup system in place. A proper backup system should have multiple points of failure. That means that if one backup fails, there’s a backup of that backup.
Backups are very important when it comes to healthcare data because it means you won’t risk losing important information about patients. Healthcare organizations are very vulnerable to malware like ransomware that encrypts your data.
When you have a good backup system in place, the ransomware is rendered ineffective.
Update Your Systems
Healthcare organizations are notorious for not keeping their software updated. While running older operating systems might be convenient, it is a terrible practice from a data security perspective.
Old operating systems have a lot of security vulnerabilities. If the operating system is no longer supported by the developer, that means the vulnerabilities will never be fixed.
You can be certain that malicious actors know about these vulnerabilities and that they’ll eventually use them to gain access to your data. Protect your organization by only using modern, up-to-date software.
Ensure Healthcare Data Security
When working in healthcare data security, you can’t afford to take any chances. Always make sure you have security and backup systems in place. You should also make sure that you update to the latest software.
If you want to learn more about other security-related topics, check out the rest of our blog posts.
