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Focus on Technology: HIPAA Quick Fixes
While meeting all the HIPAA requirements for your technology (computer, network, etc.) requires some planning, there are some quick fixes that can greatly reduce the odds of your organization being breached while at the same time starting you on your path to...
Misconceptions Lead to False Sense of Security
In mid-August, The National Law Review reported the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it would focus more on smaller breaches, those affecting less than 500 individuals. I think this reflects the growing concern that Small to Medium Business (SMB) are more...
HIPAA Violation leads to jail time
An east Texas man, Joshua Hippler, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for violating HIPAA regulations. Basically, he was trying to sell PHI for personal gain. He worked in a hospital and obtained PHI that he planned to sell. The story here is not about Mr. Hippler,...
OCR HIPAA Audits: Don’t gamble your organization’s solvency
Risk of Random Selection for an OCR Audit: 1%-5% In July of this year, the OCR began Phase II of their HIPAA Compliance Audit process. They randomly-selected 167 Covered Entities for a “desk audit” and plan to conduct an additional 50-75 onsite audits over the course...
Healthcare under attack by new strain of ransomware
FireEye Labs has identified massive email campaigns by cyber-criminals during Aug, 2016 containing the Locky ransomware embedded in DOCM attachments. DOCM is Open XML Macro-Enabled Document file used in Microsoft Word. Which means the file contains a macro which MS...
Focus on Technology: Windows 10 shortcuts
If you're like me, sometimes you're a slow learner or you just like things the way they were. Why change a good thing, right? Windows 10 has some nice new features, but I thought Windows 7 was simple and easy to use, plus I know it. Here are some tips on how to...
Focus on Technology: $77 Billion Hard Drive (in 1960)
It's still summer and I was trying to find a good Focus on Technology topic for this blog. Well, no such luck. I didn't really find anything that peaked my interest and I thought something a littler lighter to wrap up summer would be nice vs yet another boring tech...
Third Rock Announces – Custom HIPAA Policies and Procedures
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Austin, TX, Aug 25, 2016 – Third Rock, provider of HIPAA Worry-Free Compliance™, announced custom, online HIPAA Policies and Procedures as an additional capability of their compliance management platform, CompassDB™. This new capability is...
Healthcare entity leaves its patients exposed after breach
Athens Orthopedic Clinic (AOC) in Georgia, suffered a cyber-attack in June of 2016 that impacted roughly 200,000 patients. If that's not bad enough, AOC is not able to pay for extended credit monitoring for its victims. The healthcare industry, including small,...
Focus on Security: Top Ten Tips for Cyber-Security for Small Businesses
I know it's getting old and boring, but cyber-criminals are focused on PHI, which means we, in healthcare, need to take action to protect it. The SBA has a helpful list of cyber-security tips posted on their web site. It's a great starting point to harden your...