It’s no secret that healthcare organizations contain endless sensitive and critical assets. Patient files and electronic medical records (EMR) are not only important, but some of the most highly valued assets on the black market. In fact, healthcare related breaches increased by 55.1% in 2020.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was initially passed in 1996, and it has drastically modernized the healthcare industry as well as increased security surrounding the handling of protected health information (PHI). While HIPAA has done a lot to ensure peace of mind for patients, HIPAA compliance has often become quite a headache for small to large businesses alike.

The threat isn’t always coming from outside an organization. In any organization, big or small, employees are given access to critical information, files, data, and more. It may seem like employees, or internal users, would be the obvious people to trust with these kinds of assets.

The government is taking on cybersecurity matters with gusto and leading the charge with some pretty heavy hitters like Amazon, IBM, Apple and Google. Not to mention, the latest cybersecurity initiative involving the private sector follows two mandates addressing the improvement of cybersecurity of the federal government and enhancing cybersecurity measures of critical infrastructure. It’s the momentum that the cybersecurity industry loves to see.

Patient data is being accessed every day at healthcare facilities to the point where an EMR system can experience over a million accesses in just one day. HIPAA requires that all of that patient data is audited to ensure each access attempt is appropriate, so it’s the job of compliance officers to make sure these audits happen.

When it comes to reviewing and managing user access rights, many organizations are failing to do so thoroughly or are simply opting out. The reason? Reviewing user access manually is too difficult, too time-consuming, or not possible for smaller organizations whose focus is elsewhere.

Since 2020, hospitals and healthcare organizations suffered brutal ransomware and phishing attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare cyber attacks came from all sides and caught facilities off guard, from the aggressiveness and sheer volume of hacks and cyber threats.

Let’s face it: When it comes to data security, ensuring your company’s compliance can be a headache, no matter the industry. Unfortunately, this problem is made even worse by the realization that compliance requirements extend beyond your internal operations.

Compliance teams in healthcare organizations have the important task of ensuring patient data is protected from unwarranted access. It is a crucial job within the organization, due to the fact that it is difficult to restrict access to medical workers in the healthcare setting, and restricting access to EMRs could make it more difficult for them to do their daily, or emergency-related tasks.