If you're a healthcare provider that isn't utilizing file and Email encryption services to protect shared and stored data, you could be putting your Organization at significant risk of financial penalties associated with HIPAA violations.
Recently it was announced that the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has agreed to pay a $1.7 million dollar fine that was assessed after an unprotected USB drive that's believed to contain electronic protected health information was stolen from an employee's vehicle.
This is the first time the Office of Civil Rights has taken action against a state agency for violating HIPAA privacy and security regulations.
If this USB drive were protected with encryption and prevented the perpetrators from accessing this critical information, this story might have ended very differently - with them not having the keys to access the data stored on the removable media.
The moral of this story is that Covered Entities of all sizes that aren't using encryption to protect critical patient and billing information could be potentially putting themselves at risk by not using the privacy and security measures required by HIPAA regulations.
If you need to deploy encryption services at your healthcare Organization, please click on the link below to learn more about an affordable and easy to deploy HIPAA Compliant solution that can be used to secure Email messages, large files, USB thumb drives, CD's, DVD's and Blu-Ray discs.
Get More Information On HIPAA Encryption
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