Tips for Cyber Security in Your Chiropractic Practice

With the risk of a cyber-security breach increasing on a daily basis, below are some tips that will help practice owners maintain the security that they need in order to protect patient information.

Establish a Security Culture

❒ Build a security-minded organizational culture so that good habits and practices become automatic.

❒ Conduct information security education and training frequently.

❒ A practice owner should be the security leader in the practice and set a good example in attitude and action.

❒ Instill taking responsibility for information security as one of your practice’s core values.

Protect Mobile Devices

❒ Ensure your mobile devices are equipped with strong authentication and access controls.

❒ Ensure laptops have password protection

❒ Enable password protection on handheld devices (if available). Take extra physical control precautions over the device if password protection is not provided.

❒ Protect wireless transmissions from intrusion.

❒ Do not transmit unencrypted Protected Health Information (PHI) across public networks (e.g., Internet, Wi-Fi).

❒ Where it is absolutely necessary to commit PHI to a mobile device or remove a device from a secure area, encrypt the data.

❒ Do not use mobile devices that cannot support encryption.

❒ Develop and enforce policies specifying the circumstances under which devices may be removed from the facility.

❒ Take extra care to prevent unauthorized view of the PHI displayed on a mobile device.\

Hopefully, this information will provide some simple security tips in order to prevent a violation and/or security breach which can devastate a practice.