Data Security for Healthcare: Top Methods, Challenges and Benefits of Implementation

Isn’t it strange that despite all the talk about data security in healthcare, often there’s little action taken? Imagine finding out about a data breach only after losing valuable information! This was the reality for Professional Finance Company, a healthcare debt collector in Colorado. They experienced a cyberattack that affected nearly 2 million people. Although no misuse of private information was found, the final outcome remains uncertain.

But the risk doesn’t stop at late detection. Data breaches can be expensive, sometimes even forcing businesses to shut down or pay massive fines. If you’re in the medical field dealing with patient information, securing that data isn’t just important—it’s absolutely vital. However, the complexity of data security can lead teams to take shortcuts. In this article, we’re going to discuss how to overcome the challenges of keeping health data safe.

Data Security: What Does It Mean in Healthcare?

Healthcare data security means protecting patient information. This could be personal details, medical history, or financial facts. The aim is to prevent unauthorized access, modification, or destruction of this data.

Let’s illustrate this with a scenario: a patient is moving to a new city and needs to transfer their medical records to a new doctor. In this situation, data security becomes vital. It ensures that the patient’s information remains safe during the transfer.

But how does this information move around in a healthcare ecosystem? Let’s break it down into steps:

• Both doctors must use secure ways to send the patient’s records. It stops others from peeking in.
• The new specialist must check who’s sending the records. This ensures it’s coming from the right place.
• Only people allowed to see the records should have access. You can do this  by setting clear rules on who can see what.
• The patient’s details must stay the same during the move. Checks are used to make sure nothing’s been changed.
• Once the new doctor gets the records, they must store them safely. This keeps the data risk-proof both while it’s being sent and when it’s arrived.

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Securing Patient Records: Why You Should Care 

We’ll kick off with a few statistics to appreciate the value of data-proof strategies in healthcare.

How Often Does Data Get Stolen? 

Reports say the number of information thefts each year has tripled. It went from nearly 200 in 2010 to over 700 in 2022. In 2022 alone, more than 52 million people had their health information stolen in these breaches.

What’s the Cost? 

According to a 2022 survey, the average cost of a healthcare data breach has hit double digits for the first time. It’s jumped to a record high of $10.1 million. That’s 9.4% more than in 2021 and 41.6% more than in 2020.

While these figures may seem overwhelming, they also highlight the urgent need for improved safety. Recognizing the benefits of data protection can inspire proactive steps towards enhancement. Here’s what a secure strategy can offer you:

Trust is key between patients and doctors. Good data security means patients feel safe sharing their information. This leads to better care.

Secure and up-to-date patient data helps doctors make better decisions. It lets them give personalized care and reduces mistakes.

Medical organizations have to follow data protection rules. For example, Americans have HIPAA, and Europe, the GDPR. These rules need strict data security to keep patient info safe. By keeping data safe, your company can meet the demands and avoid legal problems.

The healthcare sector is a common target for cyberattacks. Good data security helps protect patient info from theft and fraud.

Data breaches can cost a lot of money and harm an organization’s reputation. Prioritizing data security can help protect against these losses.

The Three Pillars of Data Security to Address

Data security has three main principles: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. They are known as the CIA triad. We’ll explore each one.

Confidentiality keeps information private. To do this, we use:

• Access Controls: Limiting who can see data based on roles or permissions.
• Encryption: Scrambling data so only authorized users can understand it.
• Authentication and Authorization: Checking user identities and permissions.

Integrity means keeping data accurate and consistent. In practice, this means:

• Hashing and Digital Signatures: Using math (cryptographic algorithms) to make sure data hasn’t changed.
• Change Control and Auditing: Tracking changes and looking for unauthorized edits.
• Data Validation and Input Sanitization: Checking and cleaning data to prevent issues.

Availability means making sure data is accessible when needed. It entails:

• Redundancy and Fault Tolerance: Using backup systems to prevent disruptions.
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning: Making plans for dealing with outages.
• Security Measures to Prevent Downtime: Protecting against threats that could cause downtime.

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Techniques for Ensuring Healthcare Data Protection

You might be wondering about the best practices to protect information. Here’s what you should do: 

One key aspect is robust access keys. They allow employees to see only the data they need for their job, which helps reduce unauthorized access. Unique passwords that change frequently, combined with multi-factor authentication, also offer additional layers of security.

Encryption plays a role in protecting data, both when it’s stored and during transfer. Using encryption protocols like AES or RSA makes stored data unreadable to unauthorized users. To protect data from being intercepted while being sent, secure communication protocols like HTTPS or SSL/TLS come in handy.

Update Systems and Apply Patches Regularly

Systems upgrades and applying can help fix known security issues and make systems safer. A vulnerability management program can help find and fix security risks.

How frequently do you check your network to identify weaknesses and gaps? Creating action plans allows addressing risks and enhancing data security. A backup and disaster recovery plan safeguards information from loss during system failures or attacks. With regular backups and a well-designed disaster recovery plan, we can restore systems and details quickly after problems occur.

Another key step is setting up intrusion detection systems. Recent stats are concerning. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports 80% of healthcare breaches come from hacking. Unauthorized access makes up another 15%. You can find and stop unauthorized access attempts timely. Meanwhile, auditing access logs helps spot and investigate suspicious activities.

Negligent employees are a big problem. They cause 61% of healthcare data breach threats. Luckily, healthcare groups are improving. They’re getting better at spotting insider breaches. They’re also better at reporting these to the Office for Civil Rights. What kinds of incidents are we talking about? Employee errors, carelessness, spying on medical records, and even data theft by bad insiders. You can provide all-inclusive training about HIPAA and security standards. Technologies that monitor access to medical records also reduce these breaches.

Healthcare Data Security: Obstacles and Mitigation Tips

A report by Singapore-based Cyber Risk Management (CyRiM) highlights healthcare as a sector greatly affected by cybercrimes. Hackers usually target healthcare and finance industries, with 15% and 10% of attacks respectively. In the last two years, the healthcare sector lost $25 billion.

It’s obvious that medical firms face critical data security challenges. Below are a few of them and how to curb them. 

Interconnected systems, such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), often interface with third-party applications. While this integration enhances functionality, it can also inadvertently create vulnerabilities and expose sensitive information.

Solution: Maintain an inventory of connected devices, conduct vulnerability assessments, and implement network segmentation.

Even in the best of workplaces, disgruntled employees are a reality. This can potentially lead to insider threats, endangering the company’s security and potentially compromising sensitive details.

Solution: Remove previous staff from all your networks and educate current ones about the costly implications of leaking data.

Establishing a robust defense system can be a costly endeavor, often beyond the financial reach of smaller hospitals. Consequently, these institutions may find themselves lacking the necessary resources and expertise to ensure adequate IT security.

Solution: Use managed security services or collaborate with cybersecurity partners. Prioritize security investments based on risk assessments.

With the advancement of technology, cyber attacks are also evolving. Actors continually adopt new strategies to compromise healthcare information, making the digital landscape an ever-changing battlefield.

Solution: Create a proactive cybersecurity program with threat intelligence, penetration testing, and incident response planning. Stay informed about emerging threats and best practices.

Conclusion

The root of the problem lies in the foundation. If you’re developing medical software and don’t prioritize IT security, you could run into major issues. The choice of the vendor matters! How well do they understand healthcare systems? Do they comply with HIPAA rules? These aren’t questions to take lightly. At The APP Solutions, security is our top priority. We leverage AI and machine learning to create the safest networks possible.

Are you tired of unpredictable security? Do you want to nip potential threats in the bud? If so, get in touch with us.