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Cyber Attack

How Hospitals Can Prevent Cyberattacks

Posted by on 17 November 2017
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cyber_attackMany hospitals have incorporated technology in their daily operation because of the benefits it presents to their firms. However, the use of technology exposes the data belonging to these institutions for access by unauthorized users. These tech-savvy criminals access the information by carrying out a cyber-attack against the organization. However, there are ways which hospitals can use to prevent this from happening.

  1. Develop Internal Security Policies

The first access point to the data for your hospital is through your employees. They can give this information to the criminals willingly or unknowingly. For example, an employee in your organization can click on a link in their mail, and it will lead them to a fake site which will ask for their logins. Voila, the criminals will have in their possession correct credentials which they can use to access your data. Such methods can even compromise the cloud data security that you have in place.

Having an internal security policy of the security of data is key to prevent your employees from acting as the pathway to unauthorized access. You should educate them on the latest phishing methods that hackers are using. Also, you should have a policy that ensures that employees are only accessing the information that they need. For example, the store supervisor does not need access to patient records to perform their duty.

  1. Consult a Security Expert

The system that you have in place could have obvious weaknesses that you are not aware of, and you could not even detect them after prolonged use. It is the reason why you need to use the services of a security expert. Many people would view this as trying to incur an unnecessary business expense. However, this is not the case. It is an invaluable process that will save you unnecessary expenses and frustrations down the line. A security expert will check your system and identify any weaknesses that it has. Also, they can give recommendations on the best ways you can follow to improve the security of the system. Even giant companies use the services of security to experts to assure the security of their platforms. It is important that you hire a security expert who was not involved in the development of the system. It is because it is difficult for a person to identify the mistakes they made, and some may hide them to save their reputation.

  1. Use Strong Passwords

The benefit of using strong passwords is well-known. However, most people do not know what characteristics of strong passwords are. Hence, they are not able to develop one that hackers will not be able to guess or generate. The first feature of a strong password is that it is unique. Using passwords on the system in your hospital that is similar to those you use on other platforms will make you vulnerable. It is because it means when a person knows the password that you use on one platform they can get access to all your accounts on other platforms. Your employees should be aware of this too. Currently, there are different applications that you can make use of to generate unique passwords for you each time.

Another critical feature of strong passwords is the characters that make them up and the length. First, a strong password is that which is a bit long, like at least eight characters. It is because it is easier to guess shorter passwords. Secondly, a strong password is made up of different characters. They will include numbers, lower and upper case letters, symbols, and special characters. The aspects will make the password difficult to guess and generate for the hackers.

Cyber attacks are becoming a major concern. However, you can prevent that from happening to your hospital by having simple precautions in place such as using the methods we discussed. It will make it difficult for unauthorized users to gain access.

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