If you’ve read our blog articles before, you’ve seen our tag line; Protect your Patients. Protect your Practice. Protect Yourself. Most of our articles focus on protecting your practice and patients. Very few have been focused on you, the individual and your protection. Now each newsletter will include advice on how you can better protect yourself and your confidential data. Hopefully we can help your family and friends as well.
So, let’s start at square one; your home computer. If it is connected to the Internet, it is vulnerable to cyber attack. Install a reputable antivirus software package on your system and turn on automatic updates. Thousands of new computer viruses are created daily and existing ones are continually updated in an effort to sneak past antivirus software. Almost a million new variants per day! It’s very important that antivirus software is continually updated to recognize the latest viruses. If you use on-line banking or bill payment, it is essential to have antivirus software. There are many good products on the market that will cost between $20 to $60 per year. There are some decent free versions available as well. Search on 2017 antivirus reviews and a wide range of reviews are available, most from publications. In my opinion, most are not completely unbiased due to ad revenue issues. I tend to rely on Av-Test, an independent lab: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/.
I won’t recommend a product as preferences vary and it boils down to personal preference. I will say I don’t rely on Microsoft’s Windows Defender. There are also concerns about Kaspersky Lab, which is always rated high, but there are worries about links to the Russian intelligence agencies. Though Kaspersky denies any ties to Russian government or spy organizations, the US government is blocking purchase and use of the software in its organizations.
Hope this helps you personally! Join our free monthly newsletter to stay up-to-date on HIPAA and cybersecurity.
Protect Your Patients. Protect your Practice. Protect Yourself. ™