How to combat rising health care data security risk

By Gary Hunt, CAE, OSCPA communications director

A rise in both criminal activity and the use of electronic medical records have helped make data security a top concern in health care.

“In medical facilities, there are just so many electronic devices and so many of them are basically autonomous – they’re not being used by an end user,” said Paul Fields, a senior security analyst from the data security firm ITSecureNow.

“Those (devices) may not get patched or updated… That creates a really large attack surface for a medical facility, which is a big target for anybody who is looking to do those kinds of hacks.”

We spoke with Fields and ITSecureNow Solutions Architect Trent Heer on the latest episode of OSCPA Spotlight (which you can view above), and on our podcast, The State of Business with the Ohio Society of CPAs.

“The other part of it is information that is being circulated among all the partners in the medical industry is rife with so much personally identifiable information that makes identity theft incredibly easy,” he said.

Watch the episode above to learn the steps Fields and Heer say you can take to make your organization’s data safer. And be sure to catch them later this month at OSCPA’s Health Care Summit.

Health Care Summit

Oct. 24 | Webcast

Oct. 24 | Columbus