Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, the healthcare sector is not spared from phishing attempts, patient security breaches, and cybercrime. Breaches are not slowing down, highlighting the reality that the athenahealth EMR US healthcare sector is vulnerable to cyber attackers who seize any opportunity to commit destructive cyber thefts.

Data breaches can have disastrous effects for those who are unlucky enough to be affected by them. Therefore, data breaches are not to be treated lightly, as they can result in costly fines as well as a shattered reputation. This is especially true in the healthcare field, where cybercriminals are after confidential patient data, sometimes known as Protected Health Information (PHI).

With the present situation, people are using athena health EMR online health services such as telehealth to receive care and avoid going to the medical center, attracting more sophisticated cybercriminals. However, the threat continues to exist in the form of unauthorized access and phishing attempts.

Top 5 Healthcare Data Breaches

Tandem Diabetes Care

The healthcare organization is well-known for developing diabetes-related medical products. Unfortunately, a phishing email compromise exposed the personal information of the majority of their patients. The data includes personal health information, bank account information, and insurance information.

Florida Orthopedic Institute

According to athena medical software, on July 1st, the Florida Orthopedic Institute was subjected to a cybersecurity incident that compromised the data of 640,000 individuals. Claims histories, diagnosis codes, payment amounts, and insurance plan identification numbers were among the information affected. The good news is that IT administrators secured the server right away.

Ambry Genetics

In January 2020, hackers stole 232,772 patient files at Ambry Genetics by email. Medical information, names, and social security numbers were all compromised.

Magellan Health

Ransomware assaults attacked 8 of Magellan's Health affiliates, affecting 365,000 patients. Employee identities, passwords, and athenahealth pricing patient insurance information were among the data breaches.

Elite Emergency Physicians

The healthcare provider employed a third-party organization to dispose of patient documents securely. Unfortunately, CentralFiles could not complete the task, and personal patient files were discovered on a dumping site.

Tips to Avoid Healthcare Data Breaches

Limit Access to Data

With hundreds of employees and devices within a healthcare business, it's critical to identify users, track their activities, and ensure proper logging in and out procedures. In addition, check that you have adequate access controls based on user position so that only healthcare professionals who work with athena electronic medical records have access to them.

Conduct Security Risks

HIPAA regulations require providers to conduct an annual security risk assessment for vulnerability discovery and policy review. Therefore, make regular security audits a significant priority, and don't skip or simplify them.

Update Your Software

Hackers are constantly looking for new ways to gain access to your data. Regular software updates eliminate faults in the system and reduce the danger of cyberattacks in your organization. Software Finder, with considerable experience in healthcare software development, will assist you in updating existing medical solutions and ensuring that they are resistant to current cybersecurity threats.

5 Healthcare Data Breaches and Tips to Prevent Them

EMR Vendor Selection Template