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Risk analysis is one of four required implementation specifications in the Security Management Process section of the HIPAA Security Rule. The rule requires covered entities to “[c]onduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information held by the [organization].” Too often, we see healthcare organizations missing the mark on aligning with the Risk Analysis requirements as defined in the HIPAA Security Rule and running afoul of OCR and regulators in the process. Read More

Over 30,000 organizations, including healthcare entities, have been infiltrated by a Chinese-affiliated espionage group via zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange email servers. The attack has wide-ranging impacts for healthcare organizations, a majority of which use Microsoft to provide email services. This blog article provides an overview of the Microsoft Exchange breach, its origins, and the latest recommendations for mitigation from Microsoft, the CISA, and Meditology’s technical security and ethical hacking experts. Read More

Groundbreaking cyberattacks against third-party vendors that support the healthcare ecosystem have begun to threaten patient safety and fundamental business operations for healthcare organizations. As a result, cybersecurity certifications like SOC 2 are fast becoming a mandate for vendors that participate in the healthcare supply chain. Read More

Health systems are experiencing a barrage of cybersecurity attacks. Establishing a strong security program is paramount to thwart bad actors’ plans of gaining access to critical data and systems. The majority of health systems have a security program in place, but programs will continually need to be strengthened and refined. What can health systems proactively do to continually enhance their security programs? KLAS reached out to five healthcare-focused cybersecurity firms and asked: “What can health systems do today to avoid pitfalls and gaps in their security programs?” Read More

On January 5, 2021, the President signed bill HR 7898 into law that amends the HITECH Act to require the Department of Health and Human Services and OCR to recognize and promote best practice security for meeting HIPAA requirements. Specifically, the new law incentivizes covered entities and business associates to adopt industry best practices including HITRUST CSF certifications and NIST CSF standards. Read More

The NSA has issued a cybersecurity advisory for cloud attack techniques currently in use by malicious actors that abuse federated identity trust models. This new approach allows attackers to jump across cloud-hosted platforms undetected and move from less-protected environments to more sensitive cloud applications like Microsoft Office365 email. Read More

A groundbreaking cyberattack against the Texas-based IT network solutions provider SolarWinds has resulted in unauthorized access to a wide range of government and private sector organizations. The extent, scale, and impact of the attack are still being assessed; however, initial indications are that the attack will have lasting security impacts for months and possible years to come for organizations including healthcare entities. Read More

The era of highly digitized healthcare is upon us. However, there remain multiple obstacles on the patient information superhighway that have been preventing health information transmission from reaching top speeds. That is all about to change due to a fleet of new regulations introduced for HIPAA, HITECH, OCR, and CMS that are scheduled to go into effect in 2021. Recent regulatory updates have been announced that are designed to side-step and remove several obstacles that have been impeding the sharing of patient information across the continuum of care. Read More