With the risk of a cyber-security breach increasing on a daily basis, below are some tips that will help a dental practice owner maintain the security that they need in order to protect patient information.
Use a Firewall
- Unless your Electronic Health Record (EHR) is totally disconnected from the Internet, you must install a firewall to protect against intrusions and threats from outside sources.
- Software firewalls are included with some popular operating systems, providing protection at the installation stage.
- Alternatively, separate firewall software is widely available from computer security developers.
- Large practices that use a Local Area Network (LAN) should consider a hardware firewall.
- A hardware firewall sits between the LAN and the Internet, providing centralized management of firewall settings
Install and Maintain Anti-Virus Software
- Use an anti-virus product that provides continuously updated protection against viruses, malware, and other code that can attack your computers through web downloads, CDs, email, and flash drives.
- Keep anti-virus software up-to-date.
- Most anti-virus software automatically generates reminders about these updates, and many are configurable to allow for automated updating.
Hopefully, this information will provide some simple security tips in order to prevent a HIPAA violation and/or security breach which can devastate a practice.
Stuart J. Oberman, Esq. handles a wide range of legal issues for the dental profession, including: employment law, cyber security breaches, practice sales, real estate transactions, lease agreements, OSHA compliance, dental board complaints, and professional corporations.
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