In a study released this week by the Ponemon Institute, a U.S. privacy research group, almost 90 percent of surveyed healthcare organizations reported they had at least one data breach involving patient data in the last two years; 45 percent reported more than five breaches.
Healthcare records are a prime target for hackers because they are such a rich source of information. Stolen credit card numbers expire quickly once the patterns of misuse are discovered. Personal identity information is far more persistent.
In the U.S., healthcare organizations and their business associates are governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly known as HIPAA. This law sets our specific requirements for how patient data must be protected, stored and used.
HIPAA Ready
Leaseweb’s data center in Manassas, VA – in the DC capital area – was recently recognized as being HIPAA-ready by independent auditor EY. EY noted that Leaseweb USA’s HIPAA-compliant hosting environment meets all the applicable standards for logical and physical security, operational resilience, incident management, service deployment and change management.
This third-party statement of recognition allows customers in the United States to make the Leaseweb platform part of their overall HIPAA compliance process, while also providing international customers with the assurance that their data will be well protected.
As the future of healthcare will be very technology-driven, protecting patient data becomes even more important. Medical information doesn’t just live in doctors’ offices anymore. Long-distance “telehealth” allows doctors in urban centers to treat patients far from their facilities. Connected apps or devices – part of the Internet of things – is monitoring everything from glucose levels to heart rhythms. Medical data protection is no longer the exclusive domain of pure healthcare professionals.
Once these innovators get to a certain scale, they face threats beyond just prying hackers looking for data. As the Ponemon study notes, “ransomware, malware, and denial-of-service (DOS) attacks” were cited by healthcare organizations as their top cyber threats.
For an Internet-based business, uptime is money. That’s why Leaseweb offers a built-in security service that allows cloud-based businesses to easily respond to threats, mitigate attacks (like DDOS) and monitor suspicious traffic to prevent data breaches. A configurable, cloud-based dashboard adjusts customers’ security situations, monitors suspicious traffic and always responds to threats. Leaseweb Application Security can even be used as a standalone by non-Leaseweb customers!
If you would like to learn more about how Leaseweb can help meet your Health IT needs, please contact us today.