Data security news & resources

A little while back in December 2020, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), notifying us of upcoming augmentations to the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Three years and a lot of back and forth later, and it looks like those changes are about to be finalized into law. While we […]

It’s no secret that the healthcare sector is a prime target for cyber-attacks. Research shows healthcare organizations in the US experienced 1,426 attacks per week in 2022 – up 60% from the year before.  But while healthcare companies spend their limited resources and time shielding patient health information (PHI) from external threats, they forget that […]

Miami-based healthcare software provider, Independent Living Systems, is in the hot seat this week, after announcing a data breach that impacted over 4.2 million individuals.  The incident, which is the largest healthcare breach of the year so far, came to light on March 14, when the company shared an announcement stating it experienced an “incident […]

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), healthcare organizations must put in place specific controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of protected health information (PHI).  However, complying with HIPAA today is much more complex than it was twenty years ago. As congress recently noted, “advances in electronic technology could erode the […]

“Is it true we need to retain our HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) audit log records for six years?”  That’s a common question healthcare organizations ask us when they learn about Polymer data loss prevention (DLP) for HIPAA compliance.  While our audit reporting capabilities enable you to capture records for well over a […]

Warren Buffet once said: “It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.”  What’s that got to do with HIPAA? Well, whenever the OCR or FTC dolls out a penalty for a HIPAA violation, they also provide a handy document explaining why they gave out the fine, and how […]

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) consists of several rules that HIPAA-covered entities must follow to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of protected patient health information (PHI).  One such rule, which we will focus on today, is the mandate to “enhance safeguards as needed to limit unnecessary or inappropriate access to and […]

So, you’re a healthcare organization that’s started using Slack? Chances are, you want to help your employees communicate and collaborate more effortlessly, and you’ve heard on the grapevine that Slack is the collaboration tool to use. We’ve heard the same. Slack adoption is soaring. The company generated $902 million in revenue between March 2020 and […]

It’s been a long time since there’s been any update to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But, this year, things are going to change with new additions to the HIPAA privacy rule expected to be announced in the coming months. Read on to discover how HIPAA will evolve this year and what […]

The healthcare sector has a problem. It’s trying to innovate, embrace new ways of working and adopt the cloud. To an extent, it’s doing this successfully but, then, when we look at data breach figures we see that, for many companies, this innovation is coming at a cost. For the last ten years, the healthcare […]

Healthcare providers, hospitals and medical institutes have rapidly evolved over the last 18 months. While digitalization was already a focus in this sector, the pandemic forced organizations everywhere to press hard on the accelerator. As Satya Nadella famously said, organizations worldwide saw “2 years of digital transformation in 2 months.” Healthcare, though, is extra unique within […]