As a business owner or manager, you have a multitude of “things” you must ensure that your company is doing correctly. There are HR rules and regulations, taxes, safety requirements, and on it goes. Each of these can invoke fines or even criminal penalties if ignored. Unfortunately, I have one more item for you to add to your list: cybersecurity.
Everyone acknowledges that it is important to protect your computer networks, and more specifically, your company’s data. But do you know that if some types of data are stolen there are stiff penalties assessed, both civil and criminal?
Protected Health Information (PHI) is a big data type that falls under this. HIPAA regulations require that all forms of PHI be protected. If you are a medical office or a related business that handles patient information, you have a major responsibility to protect those records. If you are found negligent, you will be held responsible.
As an IT provider, ACS has helped many health companies conduct their own internal HIPAA audits. We have tools available to help a medical office through the process of HIPAA compliance. Of course, many HIPAA requirements involve your network and computer systems.
The next data type is bigger than HIPAA compliance: PCI (Payment Card Industry) requirements.
I’m not sure if you’ve had the “pleasure” of going through a PCI audit, but they are long and complicated. If you accept credit cards from your clients, you’ve probably been through a PCI audit.
It is scary to realize that if cardholder data is stolen because of negligence on your part, the penalties are devastating for your company. Once again, many of the PCI requirements are specific to network and computer systems, where much of the data is stored.
These are the two most intense cybersecurity topics we see on a regular basis at ACS. But even if PHI and PCI compliance are not issues for your company, there are guidelines you should follow to make sure your data security is adequate.
Here are a few things all companies should do for their cybersecurity:
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