Cybersecurity Strategy for Small Medical Practices – How to Protect Yourself?

No Skilled Cybersecurity Personnel

Medical practices often don’t employ their IT team - a single IT guy cannot cover modern cybersecurity best practices. A reputable IT company should be big enough to handle your daily requirements and protect your network in advance. An excellent IT company will have experts on staff to help you with HIPAA compliance and practice protection.

Ignoring Cybersecurity Because They Don't Understand It

When it comes to cybersecurity, "out of sight, out of mind" doesn't work. HIPAA legislation aims to safeguard patient data against breaches, including cyberattacks. You have a lot at stake, including your data, your money (carelessness is punishable by law), and your reputation. As a result, you cannot afford to overlook cybersecurity.

Ignoring the Threat of Cyberattacks

Medical practices are among the majority of small businesses that believe they are too small to be targeted by hackers. Regretfully, the majority of hackers are interested in obtaining medical data, and they will target tiny medical practices without cybersecurity. Additionally, hackers can employ bots to search the internet for "open windows" into networks; occasionally, they get into a medical practice.

No Internal Policies for Data Safeguarding

One of the main problems small medical practices encounter is the absence of internal security policies. Password-protecting all workstations and mobile devices that have access to PHI (Protected Health Information) is an essential example of a simple, free solution. However, the majority of medical practices do not enforce the existing policies, which makes them ineffective.

Unprotected Hard Drives

Many businesses discard old computers, including their hard drives. A hard drive with 1,000 patient records is worth $350,000 to a criminal since medical data is worth $350 per record on the black market. Hard drives must be protected by medical standards; after they are decommissioned, they should be destroyed.

Universal Passwords

These are popular among small medical clinics, which utilize them for all logins. Three factors make this approach problematic. First, staff members speak loudly, "Try a password with the @ and # signs," around the office. Second, almost all computers and systems are still accessible to departing employees. Lastly, because universal passwords are rarely changed, it makes it simpler for hackers to gain access.

Consider the Cost of Cybersecurity is Millions

Given that HIPAA alone imposes $50,000 in fines for each occurrence, cybersecurity is far more cost-effective for the majority of medical operations than a data breach. In addition to the penalties, you can suffer irreparable harm to your reputation. In fact, after a data breach, 54% of patients are likely to switch the practice.

Avoid Conducting Periodic Risk Assessments

HIPAA and digital medical records require a recurring evaluation, typically once a year for small medical practices. These assessments offer a starting point for your network security, recommendations for enhancements, and evidence of your prior implementations. You must document everything - how you are enhancing the security of your PHI under HIPAA.

Making Wi-Fi Available to Patients

Free Wi-Fi is available almost everywhere these days, but you don't want your patients using the main Internet connection at your office. Rather, make your internal network hidden and password-protected. Cutting off the connections also guarantees that your patients aren't impeding the efficiency of your staff.

Data Breaches

Data breaches occur when unauthorized people obtain private patient data. They may occur as a result of insider threats, device theft, or hacking. Legal consequences, a decline in patient confidence, and possible fines are among the outcomes.

Phishing Attacks

Phishing emails are frequently used by cybercriminals to fool staff members into disclosing private information or downloading malicious software. Unauthorized access to patient information or system credentials may result from this.

Inadequate IT Infrastructure

A lot of small businesses have antiquated or inadequate IT infrastructure, which leaves them vulnerable to cyberattacks. This underfunding of cybersecurity may result in weaknesses that hackers can quickly take advantage of.

Ransomware

The harmful software that encrypts a practice's data and prevents access until a ransom is paid. These assaults have the potential to seriously impair operations, postpone patient care, and cause serious financial and reputational harm. Before initiating the ransomware attack in 2022, the BlackCat group allegedly took 6 TB of data.

Third-Party Risks

For cloud storage, billing services, and electronic health record (EHR) systems, small practices usually depend on outside contractors. If these vendors lack sufficient IT security, they may serve as a point of entry for attackers.

Financial Damage

The US Change Healthcare cyberattack caused huge financial losses: since the event in 2023, US insurance companies have refunded $3.3 billion to the impacted providers, and there are hints that a $22 million ransomware payment may have been made.

The University of Vermont Health Network, a healthcare organization comprising multiple hospitals and medical clinics, was the target of a ransomware assault in October 2020. The attack exposed the very real vulnerabilities that the healthcare sector faces by interfering with services, impairing patient care, and causing large financial losses.

Reputational Damage

Cybersecurity attacks can also be a serious risk to a medical practice's reputation. Patients expect practices to protect their sensitive data from fraudsters in the current digital era. A cyberattack has the potential to seriously harm a medical practice's reputation, leading to a decline in patient confidence, bad publicity, and long-term harm to the practice.

This loss of trust can result in patients switching to the competition who demonstrate better security practices. That’s why many medical practices end up protecting their assets after a breach.

Network-Connected Medical Device Security

Exploiting flaws in medical equipment is a new hazard that could seriously endanger patients. Network-connected medical equipment, particularly those controlled remotely by outside parties, is extremely vulnerable and needs to be closely watched and guarded.

Email Protection Systems

Free email systems that don't adhere to HIPAA Security regulations should be avoided, even though the majority of small practices use third-party email providers. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and antivirus software should be installed on email systems, and users should be trained on how to spot threats like ransomware and phishing.

Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication instead of a single password. The 2FA uses SMS or email and will text you with a numeric string that you must enter (in addition to a password) to gain access.

Endpoint Protection Systems

Endpoints are devices such as PCs, laptops, and mobile devices. Medical practices may secure their endpoints by following procedures like identifying only qualified staff members as administrators, maintaining patched and updated equipment, and turning on encryption and multi-factor authentication.

Access Protection

Medical practices are required to keep audit trails that track access to data, apps, systems, and endpoints, in addition to identifying all users.

Ongoing Monitoring

Ongoing monitoring is essential to head off threats before they become larger problems that can cause a lot of hardship for a business. Sentinex helps practices monitor things like their domain, passwords, financial information, FEIN or D&B numbers (if applicable) as well as emails, passwords, and other information that may appear on the dark web. We help alert the businesses so they can mitigate and act quickly.

Data Protection and Loss Prevention

By understanding precisely where sensitive data is stored and how it is accessed, providers can stop it from being compromised. Medical practices should adopt policies, protocols, and training on the handling of this data.

Asset Management

IT asset management (ITAM) procedures should be routinely carried out by medical clinics. These methods involve establishing standard protocols for acquiring new devices, decommissioning assets that are no longer in use, and capturing important data for every device, such as asset IDs, purchase orders, and IP addresses.

Network Management

To ensure safe data exchange, network devices need to be monitored. The medical practice should include efficient network management procedures in the vendor contract when using a third-party IT vendor.

Vulnerability Management

Healthcare facilities should set up a procedure to find vulnerabilities that hackers might exploit. This usually entails checking systems and devices for common weaknesses like out-of-date software and weak passwords.

Incident Response Protocols

Medical offices must have incident response protocols in place, and staff members must get regular training on them. Additionally, practices should partner with an outside supplier that handles their monitoring or join an information-sharing and analysis organization.

Cybersecurity Governance and Oversight

Small healthcare practice owners and executives should create a culture that highlights everyone's role in managing cyber risks. To stop unwanted access to the network, employees should receive thorough training on cybersecurity best practices.