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This blog explores the cybersecurity requirements necessary for healthcare organizations to become a QHIN and plug into the national network of health information exchange facilitated by ONC’s TEFCA program. Read More

What does it mean to win at cyber risk management? Succeeding in cybersecurity and risk management is not about stopping a single attack or checking a box for compliance or security control implementation accomplishments. It is not about climbing a mountain, planting a flag, and declaring victory. Instead, cyber risk management is a dynamic game where the rules, adversaries, and tactics are constantly changing and evolving. Cyber risk management has become the ultimate endurance sport that requires relentless conditioning, practice, teamwork, and assembling the right equipment, leaders, and gameplan to prevail day in and day out. This blog post provides a playbook for assembling elite healthcare cybersecurity and risk management programs that are built to endure and dominate the game we have all suited up to play. Read More

We hear the terms risk assessment, risk analysis, and evaluation used routinely in healthcare settings, often in the context of HIPAA compliance. The big question: is there a material difference between these terms from a HIPAA regulatory perspective? Answering this question correctly is critical to maintaining HIPAA compliance and staying out of hot water with regulators. Many organizations that have misunderstood and misapplied these terms have ended up facing multi-million-dollar settlements with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for failure to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule. Read More

NIST has released new guidance for covered entities to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule. The publication is titled: "Implementing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule: A Cybersecurity Resource Guide". This blog post provides a summary of key points in the new NIST publication alongside Meditology’s analysis and further recommendations in support of NIST’s guidance. Read More

Much like volunteer firefighters, healthcare entities must invest in developing, testing, and updating emergency response plans and procedures to maintain a constant state of readiness for these inevitable attacks. The good news is that the public and private sectors have been releasing industry guidance and tools at an unprecedented pace to support incident response programs for healthcare entities. There is no need for healthcare CISOs to reinvent the wheel with these standards and best practices that are applicable to all cybersecurity programs. Read More

Much like volunteer firefighters, healthcare entities must invest in developing, testing, and updating emergency response plans and procedures to maintain a constant state of readiness for these inevitable attacks. The good news is that the public and private sectors have been releasing industry guidance and tools at an unprecedented pace to support incident response programs for healthcare entities. There is no need for healthcare CISOs to reinvent the wheel with these standards and best practices that are applicable to all cybersecurity programs. Read More

Cyberattacks on healthcare entities have become the top source of cyber breaches in the last several years according to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) public breach reporting database. Ransomware has become big business for cybercriminals targeting healthcare entities and their supporting vendor supply chain. Read More

The PCI Security Standards Council has released the much-anticipated PCI DSS version 4.0 this week. The update is several years in the making and includes significant control requirement overhauls. Healthcare organizations must update policies, procedures, and control requirements to maintain compliance with the new PCI v4.0 standard. This blog post provides details about the new requirements for PCI v4.0 and the timing for compliance for healthcare entities. Read More