Best Practices to Secure Healthcare System Data

Considering the growing cases of healthcare data breach in the past few years, it is only right for healthcare providers and their associates to grow more vigilant over protecting their data. Reports showed that the 503 breaches in 2018 compromised the confidentiality of 15 million patient records, a figure three times higher than what was seen in the 2017 breaches. But even before the first half of 2020 was over, the breaches were estimated to have compromised over 25 million patient records.

If you don’t want your business to be the next victim of a security breach, you need to invest in an anti virus scanner and other security measures. Knowing the best practices in data protection that healthcare providers can use should help.

Use the Best Antivirus Software

Even computers with up-to-date cybersecurity protection may still fall victim to hackers due to undetected vulnerabilities. Viruses may also come from external sources such as email, flash drives, or downloads. Fortunately, you can use anti virus scanner like Comodo to increase your online security.

If you’re like other healthcare providers who moved on to using electronic healthcare records, then you’d need the anti virus scanner to do its work for you. With Comodo, for instance, suspicious files get automatically contained in its patented virtual container, so it can’t access your device’s data while running. The files are then subjected to VirusScope behavioral analysis to check if they are compromised. If it fails to deliver a verdict, the files get forwarded to human researchers for further analysis.

Educating the Staff

Aside from relying on the security provided by the anti virus scanner, healthcare staff should also receive security awareness training. This can help prevent negligence or error that could make your cybersecurity vulnerable to threats. Proper training about cybersecurity can help your employees make smart decisions and handle your data with caution.

Implementing More Data Access Restrictions

Comodo Internet Security offers host intrusion prevention that stops malicious files or apps from doing anything to your network. While it protects your computer from dangerous programs, you should understand that it is not enough. You must still restrict data access to authorized people. It will be helpful to implement multi-factor authentication that validates whether the person trying to gain access is in fact, authorized. This could include a combination of a PIN or password, a key or card, or biometrics.

Recording Data Use

To ensure accountability, everything should be logged when it comes to data access and usage. This includes the name of the person who accessed the information, the date it happened, the applications or devices used, and the location from it was accessed. Doing these can help detect weak cybersecurity spots and strengthen data protection measures.

Using Data Encryption

Aside from using your anti virus scanner, data encryption will also be beneficial. It provides another layer of protection for confidential patient data. This should be done for stored and in-transit data to make it more difficult for cybercriminals to decipher information even if they access the data.

Keeping Devices Secure

As more healthcare providers allow the use of various devices to access patient data, the importance of the anti virus scanner becomes more apparent. Your computers can benefit from Comodo’s wide range of features such as anti-spyware, antivirus, bot protection, anti-rootkit, memory firewall, anti-malware, and auto sandbox technology. Its certificate-based whitelisting is especially helpful when identifying apps from external devices that are safe or unsafe to be installed.

If you are using mobile devices, it helps to manage all configurations and settings where these devices are involved. You should require the use of strong passwords, and enable the feature that can remotely delete and lock stolen or lost devices. In addition, users should encrypt data, monitor email activities, use the best practices in securing mobile devices, and install only the latest operating system and mobile security software.

Backing Up Data

Cyberattacks may not only expose confidential patient data but also compromise their availability or integrity. As such, it is necessary to have a data backup. By doing this, you can be prepared for potential data failure caused by a disaster or tech issue. Invest in offsite data backups with rigid data encryption processes, strict data access, and other best cybersecurity practices to secure data.

Comodo Internet Security

Comodo accurately detects and removes malicious threats from your computer. We have the latest antivirus technologies that will strengthen the safety of your PC and valuable data. Get the latest Comodo Internet Security software for only $29.99.