| Are you overlooking your privacy compliance? If | | | | addresses breach notification in healthcare IT |
| so, it's time to paid some attention as | | | | technology. |
| investigators are keeping a close watch. For | | | | Even though the law does not require encryption, |
| instance, last year, officials of a health system in | | | | it can help you avoid a lot of problems. It's said |
| Connecticut announced that an unencrypted hard | | | | that encryption is by far the recommended |
| drive stocked with about 1.5 million patients' | | | | means for protecting information on hard drives. |
| information on it was stolen, thus potentially | | | | If you have encrypted your data, you have |
| subjecting that protected health information(PHI) | | | | taken a great step; but if you're encrypting only |
| to abuse. | | | | certain files, you may not ensure total privacy. |
| Moreover, with the introduction of the HITECH | | | | Any provider who is making use of their machine |
| act, there's no doubt that patient privacy is | | | | with access to PHI or any other information that |
| gearing up to take center stage. And with | | | | can be used for identity theft really should have |
| employees taking work home and carrying | | | | the entire hard drive encrypted. |
| laptops or cell phones with them to office, it's | | | | What's more, you should also avoid easy |
| highly essential that your office's security is tight. | | | | passwords. You shouldn't compromise the data by |
| If you want to safeguard your data, you should | | | | using passwords that are easy to get through. |
| go for encryption even though the government | | | | You should use strong passwords which involve a |
| does not require it. The HITECH act does not | | | | series of letters, numbers and/or symbols. |
| require encryption, but a provision of the act | | | | |