If you have a medical business and you are wondering what you might need to do to improve it, there are a lot of areas that you can focus on here. One of the main ones that is always going to be vital to bear in mind is whether or not your medical business is truly secure. There are a lot of different ways in which a business can be secure or not, and it’s vital that you are aware of all of them at once. That way, you can be sure that you are going to really effectively be able to grow it and keep it going strong.
In this post, we’re going to consider some key factors you’ll need to be aware of if you hope to answer the question, “Is your medical business truly secure??” We’ll look at the necessary steps to ensure its stability and success now and into the future.
Understanding The Real Cost Of A Breach
If you do have anyone able to get into your systems or into your building without permission, this can be a very difficult situation to find yourself in, and it’s the kind of thing you’ll want to understand the consequences of as fully as possible. In fact, a single breach can easily cost millions in fines, downtime, and lost reputation, so it’s clearly hugely important that you are avoiding it at all costs. Beyond HIPAA penalties, patients also just lose faith, and their faith is one of the most important currencies you have.
Clearly, then, it’s hugely important to make sure that you don’t have to be in a position of rebuilding that trust – because that can take a long time and a lot of money to achieve. So how can you ensure that you are never going to find yourself in such a position?
Common Weak Points
It may be helpful to have an understanding of some of the common weak points that you are often going to come across in your business. These are very common across all businesses, but can often crop up in medical businesses in particular, and as such they are useful things to be aware of. One such weak point is when there are outdated systems in place, legacy EHR software and so on which is often going to be unpatched. That is effectively an open door into your systems.
Beyond that, there is always the potential for human error, which you are never going to eradicate completely but which you do need to make sure you are bringing down to a minimum as best as you can. Phishing remains the number one cause of healthcare breaches, so good training can really work wonders here. There are also common issues with third-party vendors, so you’ll want to make sure that every integration or billing partner is vetted well – each one is another potential entry point.
Then sometimes there are physical security gaps too, unsecured devices and shared logins which make internal threats easy to miss. Sometimes it’s a matter of a product not being up to standard, and you may find that it’s important to look into that too.
Compliance
It is hugely important that you are keeping your business compliant with all of the relevant standards, but this does not guarantee protection across the board. Nonetheless, it is going to make a world of difference to the security of your products and services. To confirm, is your medical business truly secure? You might find it helpful to make use of a partner in regulatory approval, as they are going to be able to help inform you of what you need to do here. This is the kind of thing that is always going to help, and you’ll find that you are much more likely to end up with a product that is both compliant and safer on the whole.
If you are compliant, that is not the whole picture, but it is certainly an important part of it, and one that you are going to want to bear in mind from the start.
Building A Culture Of Security
You should make sure that everyone considers security to be a part of their job. It’s not simply down to the IT team to ensure that it is held to; everyone who works in the organisation has to think about it to some degree or another. If you can remember that, and you can do all you can to create this culture in your business, then that is the kind of thing that is really going to help a lot, and you might be surprised at what a difference it can really make to your business.
Often this means accepting that simple habits can make the difference. Whether that means locking screens, verifying requests, reporting suspicious activity or whatever else, it’s all going to make a huge amount of difference, and you should find that this is what you want to train your staff in if you can.
The Path Forward
Investing in modern cybersecurity tools, conducting penetration tests, and maintaining strong vendor oversight are no longer optional, so it’s vital that you are going to think about this if you want to keep your business moving and on the up and up. As healthcare becomes more connected, your security strategy must evolve just as fast. The real question is: Is your medical business truly secure?
That can be easier said than done, but as long as you stick with it you should find that you are going to get there in the end. It’s amazing how well this can work for you, and what kind of result it is likely to have as well. All in all, this is going to be so much easier and simpler for you to achieve.
