Understanding the Basics of HIPAA

Breaking the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act can quickly add up for many businesses regulated by this act. Most of you might know this as HIPAA.

Ast a company millions of dollars annually, even if the breach is perpetrated by a contracted third party.

These third-party contractors are often times IT companies, so ensuring your IT provider is knowledgeable with HIPAA regulations is a huge priority and should be a mitigating factor when selecting one.

What are the top breaches of HIPAA? 

The top breaches of HIPAA are theft, unauthorized access/disclosure, and hacking. Theft includes not just the loss of cyber data, but also the taking of physical property, such as laptops.

Leaving documents out in the open or failing to dispose of them properly falls under the disclosure reason, and malware, including ransomware, is a good example of hacking.

Read the full article to understand more the complexities of the ways your business needs to protect itself with regards to HIPAA, with even some basics as ensuring cables and locks are attached to laptops to prevent basic theft.

The Fallout of a HIPAA Breach

Breaking the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) can result in significant financial consequences for businesses subject to its regulations. Even if a data breach originates from a third-party contractor, companies may still face millions in penalties.

Breaking the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) can be costly for businesses under its regulations. Commonly known as HIPAA, violations can lead to millions in penalties, even if a third-party contractor is responsible.

Often, these contractors are IT companies. So, it’s critical to choose an IT provider familiar with HIPAA regulations. This knowledge should be a key factor in your decision.

Please contact Optfinity today for more information.

We all hate the fact that our phone batteries run out of juice so quickly. But it’s no wonder they do since we rely on them for more and more of our daily lives, from GPS to entertainment to work emails, and once in a while, a phone call. One thing to keep in mind, they last a whole lot longer than phone batteries of the past thanks to lithium-ion technology. Follow these three tips to help extend your battery’s life and keep it as healthy as possible.

Make sure to avoid heat, this includes leaving your phone in a hot car, taking it into the sauna with you at the gym, or leaving it out in the hot sun when you’re at the beach or lounging by the pool. If you must take your phone into the sun, keep it shaded and as cool as possible.

Don’t let your phone die. Letting your phone’s battery drain till it dies is extremely bad for lithium-ion batteries. And lastly, if you’re going to leave your phone unused for a significant amount of time, for example, going on an international trip where you won’t be using your phone, make sure you store it with at least a 50% charge.

It is important to remember that this advice mainly applies to lithium-ion batteries, so in the event you have an old phone that still uses NMH batteries, seek out another tip. If you’re ready to upgrade or have questions on what is the best mobile phone for your business use, contact Optfinity and we’ll be glad you provide you with more information and tips.

According to the company, “Our security teams are always watching out for new threats to our users. As part of these ongoing efforts, we learned about an old set of Dropbox user credentials (email addresses plus hashed and salted passwords) that we believe were obtained in 2012. Our analysis suggests that the credentials relate to an incident we disclosed around that time”.

It is also highly recommended that you change any other passwords for sites which shared the same password as your Dropbox account. Remember to use strong passwords, use a different password for each account, and utilize two-step verification, when possible. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to us at Optfinity anytime!

If you cannot change this regulation within your company, you may want to at least provide your staff with some helpful advice when changing passwords. By just changing a few letters, numbers, or symbols, new, safe, secure passwords can be created that are still easily memorized by the user. Some examples are given in the article.

There are other tricks for password storage such as sites like lastpass.com which allows a user to safely store usernames and passwords for every single online account. The service is free to a point. For more tips and tricks, software solutions, or a free assessment, contact Optfinity today!

The assumed nature of the breach is perhaps due to internal user error. This is, by far, one of the major reasons why data breaches happen. This usually occurs when an employee accidentally gives out sensitive credentials, like passwords and usernames, to the wrong person. With one phishing email, scam phone call, or dubious website, a cybercriminal can have access to your company’s internal data.

Do not think this is limited to just large corporations. Many small businesses are finding themselves prone to these types of breaches. Ensure all of your employees know the dangers out there and how put in place procedures to mitigate these incidents. Optfinity has many tools at its disposal for its clients to help companies maintain their security and safety, and help to ensure employees are fully aware of proper protocol when dealing with sensitive credentials.

Higher end keyboards usually have encryption built into their products, so this hacking is not a problem. Additionally, Bluetooth keyboards are not susceptible because Bluetooth encrypts all data transmitted over the air.

So if you’re unsure of your keyboards safety, best to upgrade to a Bluetooth version if you need something wireless, or better yet, just stick to the old-fashioned wired keyboards. Want to ensure your safety until you can upgrade? Enable 2-step authentication when possible, avoid using the same password on multiple sites, and ensure security questions have answers only you would know.

Optfinity can provide you and your business with free assessments to check if all your equipment is as secure as possible. We pride ourselves in ensuring our client’s systems and data are fully secure and backed up in the event of a disaster.

There are many reasons why this threat may not be a serious as it seems, but to be safe, you should still take precautions to ensure your security and online safety. First and foremost, enable two-step verification. Also, do not reuse passwords across multiple sites. Finally, ensure that you change your current Yahoo password just in case your account was one of the 200 million that was accessed.

And as always, feel free to contact Optfinity if you’re still unsure of your full security or if you need assistance in accomplishing any of the suggestions we mention. Don’t forget, Optfinity also provides free assessments for businesses so you can be sure you’re safe company wide.

While you might want to limit your employees access to buy apps and games through the Windows 10 Store, Windows wants you and your employees to buy their products. Forcing you, the savvy business owner, to pay extra for Windows 10 Enterprise to have access to restrictive features preventing your employees from making these purchases.

You can’t blame Windows for this decision as most companies would do the same. What you can do, however, is install productivity-tracking solutions, or look into a web content filtering system that keeps employees from browsing dangerous or wasteful websites. The point is to keep your employees accountable for the time they spend in the office, whether they’re on the clock and working diligently, or wasting time to whittle away the workday.

If opting for the latter decision, contact Optfinity and we can help as this is something we currently do for many of our clients. Micromanaging is never a good thing, but ensuring a way to keep your employees accountable for their work day is always a win-win situation.