Cybersecurity Practices for Healthcare Providers: A Consortium

The digital advancement in the healthcare sector has seen a steep increment both due to its ease of maintenance and accessibility. The creation of online records, cloud storage and encrypted software has resulted in availability of every patient record at any branch of a healthcare system (Deibert, 2018). Making the patient records decentralized has, however, also resulted in the increased risk of security, hacking and protective concerns (Kim, 2017). The lack of adherence to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules and regulatory compliance could result in a cyber-security breaching and attack (Miller & Pollak, 2003).

With the high risk of cyber attacks and hacking, the presences of good cyber security practices are as essential as having proper medical equipment and oxygen supply. Some of the best practices, tests and rules have for prevention of cyberattacks involve:

Complying with the HIPAA rules of privacy and security – HIPAA is an established federal law governing the national standards of cybersecurity. The rules need to be followed in order to promote healthy digital practices (Miller & Pollak, 2003). The privacy and security rule of HIPAA ensure that no data about any patient will be disclosed without consent from the individual. Any breach of such actions will be taken charge through legal means.

Regulatory Compliance with Encryption – The end-to-end encryption of data and creation of backups at a code location is the key to nullify any cyber-attacks. The encryption needs to be maintained all throughout the cloud storage (Stevens, 2018). This will decrease any chances of data stealing and cyber hacking from any external sources.

SOC 2 Audit – The Service Organization Control 2, or Sock Two, determines the Trust and Safety Services Criterion of the data security system of healthcare (Sabillon, 2022). It focuses on the aspect of security and availability of protected data without any risks of cyber attacks. Under the AICPA’s criterion, SOC 2 Audit is an essential practice which performs a check on the security firewall and determines the authenticity and safety of the software (Sabillon, 2022).

Penetration Testing – This is another effective method of lowering risks related to hacking and data stealing practices. The penetration testing, or the pen test, is a hacking procedure classified under good and ethical hacking practices (Wooderson & Ward, 2017). This method is used to deliberately hack the firewall of the healthcare system to check its redundancy and protective ability (Deibert, 2018). Using such methods leads to the identification of loopholes and fixes the code.

The presence of a protected and secure healthcare firewall is a step towards patient privacy. This becomes even more important when the consequences of leakage of the data are analyzed (Stevens, 2018). The patient privacy guarantee is a responsibility of the healthcare system as well as the right of the patient. These mentioned methods, tests and compliance protocols are essential to ensure good cybersecurity practices across the healthcare system. An informed staff with awareness of these practices can ensure the best possible security backed by regional and HIPAA guidelines.

References

[1] Deibert, R. J. (2018). Toward a Human-Centric Approach to Cybersecurity. Ethics & International Affairs, 32(4), 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0892679418000618

[2] Kim, L. (2017). Cybersecurity awareness. Nursing, 47(6), 65–67. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nurse.0000516242.05454.b4

[3] Miller, R. E., & Pollak, J. (2003). Privacy and security under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Transfusion, 43(9), 1186–1189. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1537-2995.2003.00558.x

[4] Sabillon, R. (2022). Audits in Cybersecurity. Research Anthology on Business Aspects of Cybersecurity, 1-18.

[5] Stevens, T. (2018). Global Cybersecurity: New Directions in Theory and Methods. Politics and Governance, 6(2), 1. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v6i2.1569

[6] Wooderson, P., & Ward, D. (2017). Cybersecurity testing and validation (No. 2017-01-1655). SAE Technical Paper.