Thanks to instituted regulations businesses such as healthcare organizations, universities, and data centers are implementing actions to secure their private and sensitive data. However, although compliance is great, it isn’t enough.
According to a recent study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, over the past two years the average economic impact of data breaches on healthcare organizations has been $2.4 million. This number is an increase of almost $400,000 from when the study was first conducted in 2010. Add to the mix the loss of data and this can lead to identity theft and the divulging of individual personal information; which in turn can bring about law suits.
Institutions, companies, and healthcare facilities have been implementing the basics of information security management, yet data breaches aren’t decreasing and financial losses are increasing. This is a strong indicator that internal data security management is not as effective as one would hope; and that external assistance is necessary.
A list of the basic methodologies in place now and their shortcomings may help make the Achilles’ heel of internally managing data security more visible.
The basics:
- Compliance enforces security policies and procedures, but does not prevent insider negligence.
- Employee training allows awareness of privacy and security threats, but does not transform employees into experts on the intricacies entailed in the information security industry.
- Annual security risk assessments help, but they should take place more often since technology and system breach methodologies are always evolving.
- Privacy risk assessments can help control privacy and policies within unintentional employee caused breaches, but they do not entail information security or network checks (making it incomplete on its own).
Due to in depth knowledge on the different facets of information security safety and risks, an expert in the field of information security can strengthen the measures taken by any institution, business, and health facility. Don’t allow a manageable problem to grow out of proportion by sticking to the minimum standards or thinking it will save money.
The complexity of maintaining a secure information structure in an ever changing online world requires much more than a basic data security management solution; take a proactive one. In the long run, it will be the most cost effective.
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