Know this! The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability of 1996, known as HIPAA, is enacted to protect the consumer. The institutions and service providers hold the responsibility to safeguard each consumer’s (customer’s) information.
Yes, every one of your customers!
The U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) regularly investigate institutions and service providers. It keeps a running list of HIPAA violators affecting 500 and more consumers.
This HHS’s list, known as the HHS Wall of Shame, accounts for all types of HIPAA breaches. No matter big or small or if it was a honest mistake to malicious attacks; if 500 or more consumers are affected, it’s going on the wall.
For example:
• On December 11, 2018, a Colorado hospital was fined $111K for not terminate former employee’s access of protected healthcare information [source]
• On November 26, 2018, an Allergy practice pays $125K to settle doctor’s disclosure of patient information to a reporter [source]
• On October 16, 2018, Anthem Inc pays $16 Million in fines, the largest U.S. health data breach in history [source]
That’s right, whether your IT system mishandled, hacked, or blackmailed, HHS sees all the breaches the same.
A widely cited study from Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland, found hackers are attacking every 39 seconds or on average, 2,244 times a day. Can your IT system handle that?
No? It’s understandable.
The U.S. Federal Government will end up spending about $15 Billion in 2019 (and increasing every year) to prevent cyber-attacks. The government weren’t successful in repelling all attacks. [source]
Working with small- to medium-sized businesses is our specialty! We have enhanced our customers’ IT infrastructure and repelled thousands of hack attempts.
Are you an easy target for hackers?
Not 100% certain about your business’ security compliancey?
Give Digital Guardsmen a call and let’s find out.