Medical Data Management: Top 5 Medical Data Security Challenges
When you provide a service like medical data management, it’s essential for you to get access to client data. Thanks to technology, you can access data via the internet from one part of the world to another. Though it is convenient, it is also full of risks as medical data security is a sensitive topic, and no one wants to see their medical information leaked.
If you are in the medical data management industry, you should know about the top 5 medical data security challenges and their solutions which are mentioned here.
- Ransomware
Healthcare data security can be complicated due to the presence of healthcare ransomware. It is transferred via the inadvertent download of files by employees or via the malicious intentions of third-party attackers. Once ransomware attacks medical data, it can prevent the original owners from accessing the data. A simple solution to this problem is to enlighten them about ransomware and train them not to download suspicious files.
Use of Personal Devices
Sometimes if the employee has to complete a medical data management project on time, he or she may think that sending client data to personal email id to finish the task at home is harmless. But this poses a threat to the data as the home devices might not be protected like the office ones are. So, all the employees should be discouraged from transferring the data to personal devices, and a penalty should be levied if the employee doesn’t comply with this requirement.
Simple Passwords
Most people add simple passwords to devices so that they can remember it for long. The lack of strong passwords is a gift for hackers as they don’t need to work too hard to access the data. This problem can be solved by creating stronger passwords and memorizing them rather than writing them on a piece of paper on a smartphone that can be lost or stolen. Also, change the passwords as frequently as possible.
Lack of Knowledge
If employees working in a medical data management company have no idea how crucial data security is and what HIPAA compliance guidelines that need to be followed, they would hardly play a constructive role in protecting it. So, educating and training employees regularly is the key to protecting data. Also, make sure that only reliable employees are hired who have passed stringent security checks.
Non-Hacking Data Loss
Many incidents have also been reported in which the data was lost but not stolen or hacked. It can happen in an organization if the system crashes due to an unidentified error. To protect an organization from such incidents, the owners must have ample data backup devices in place and must take a back up of data as soon as it arrives. The backup should be done daily or weekly, depending on the needs of an organization.
Final Words
In essence, it can be seen that there are many challenges to medical data these days, and most of them can be avoided if you are smart enough to prepare in advance. We at Win Healthcare follow all the precautions and take all the steps necessary for protecting medical data while doing medical data management or offering any other medical process outsourcing services. The result, we have never had any data leaks at our end, and our clients appreciate that!
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