Over the last several months there has been an onslaught of news about cyberattacks, most notably ransomware attacks involving many industries, including health care institutions both in the United States and abroad, most notably the “WannaCry” attack. Most recently, a new ransomware attack known as “Petya” made headlines. By all accounts, these attacks are predicted to get worse. These attacks are in addition to other cybersecurity issues involving identity theft and other types of hacking.
Data loss through cybercrime creates an ever-increasing risk, especially to the health care industry, which is becoming a targeted industry. As discussed below, education and prevention are keys to protecting sensitive health care data and quickly responding to a security incident. The federal government through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) websites provide summaries of the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules. Understanding and complying with these various HIPAA requirements, including the requirements in the privacy rule that covered entities have a business associate agreement with its vendors that have access to personal health information (PHI), are the first steps to be taken to protect sensitive health care data. The security rule sets the standards to control the confidentiality and storage of electronic PHI, and access to electronic PHI.
