The media is abuzz with news of data breaches especially with websites like the Health and Human Services (HHS) tracking them. As per the Office of Civil Rights, there were close to 9,109 data breaches by Sept 2010, averaging 25 data breaches per day! The HSS had earlier issued a given set of regulations to…
While Cignet is recovering from the shock of $4.3 million fine slapped on it for HIPAA violation, barely two days later, the General Hospital Corporation and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization Inc. or better known as the Mass General gets hit with a fine of $1 million penalty for blatant exposure of patients’ records in a…
It is a strangely paradoxical situation that despite revised and stricter compliance regulations the number of security breaches seems to rise. The HIPAA mandate was enforced to tone down risks threatening patients’ personal records. But there has hardly been any positive report of effective progress towards a threat free environment. As per a recent study…
In 2005, when HIPAA Compliant came into effect, healthcare organizations were required to mitigate risks by conducting periodic risk assessment. But until recently a significant number of healthcare entities did not put this into practice. According to a recent survey 14 percent of hospitals and 33 percent of clinics were yet to conduct their first…
According to GartnerG2 (now Gartner Industry Advisory Services) a research unit of Gartner, 90% of cyber attacks leverage known security flaws and vulnerabilities, for which patches are already available. Gartner analysts also believe that several security attacks could have been avoided if organizations had focused more on vulnerability management efforts. Effective vulnerability management is therefore…
Privacy protection is a growing concern for organizations despite stringent laws governing data security. Medical institutions especially are experiencing challenges in safeguarding patient information. A number of data breaches have been reported in the HIPAA healthcare industry so far. And the most recent addition to this is six hospitals and a nursing home being fined…
The present IT environment is complex in nature, and much more than a handful of technical people operating and controlling systems with a few virus prevention tools. The complexity has increased manifold with a growing number of security threats being identified everyday. The security of confidential data is under question with potential risks from malicious…
According to market analyst firm IDC, file data accounts for nearly 80% of business data and has been growing at a rate of 60% every year. With such overwhelming growth in the volume of sensitive data files, persistent insider threats and complex regulatory mandates for data protection, there is immense pressure on organizations to secure…
Gone are the days when hackers attacked perimeter defences. Today their objective is to take control of confidential data and the applications which process them. Hacking is now an operation involving global coordination, sophisticated techniques and persistent teamwork. And with clear roles and responsibilities being defined in the community, hacking is now a highly organized,…
While the financial services regulatory reform bill signed into law by President Obama last week will take some time to be put into practice, several industry experts have noted that this extensive legislation holds immense significance for information/ data security. Creation of a new consumer protection agency at the Federal Reserve, provision of new powers…
