CYBERSECURITY
Threat Assessment Healthcare providers must first identify where hackers can enter their system before developing effective security measures
Because of their sensitive nature, medical records are a big target of hackers.
valuable than a single item of the same,
In 2018 alone, HHS’ Office of Inspector General investigated nearly 400 reports of
with less effort to obtain.”
medical data breaches that potentially impacted thousands of patients, according to the Advisory Board.
Once an intrusion has been verified, systems need to deploy network forensic experts to identify the root cause and bring a systematic approach to isolating
Stolen healthcare records can have an
18
“In most cases, victims of fraud are
the issues, mitigating the impacts of the
enormous financial impact to a hospital
not even aware that their information has
breach and implementing permanent cor-
system, said Terry Moon, assistant vice
been stolen until it’s way too late,” he said.
rective actions.
president of strategic sourcing, IT and
The rich information in a medical
“Depending on the data exposure
cybersecurity at HealthTrust. The main
record could include social security num-
and local laws, breach notification, credit
concerns with stolen medical records are
bers, credit card numbers, birth dates,
monitoring and more are also put in place
identity theft and filing false medical claims.
addresses and more, and is far more
to help protect patients,” Moon said.
April 2020 | The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
