If your organization is following all of the rules that are created by both federal and statewide regulations, you are likely compliant to those respective requirements and may fall under the false impression that you are therefore in a solid and secure place with regard to cybersecurity.
This simply is not true and may leave many exposed to the risks that face small to medium-sized businesses. In fact, you can be 100% compliant and still be 100% exposed to cybercriminals and the victim of a cyberattack without much effort on their part at all.
Compliance offers stringent and rigid parameters that need to be followed, requirements that need to be met, and rules and laws to “obey”. Cybersecurity, on the surface, may call for fewer rigid terms, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it entails a lax approach with minimal effort. Much like HIPAA Compliance, there are also standards that should be met with cybersecurity in order to protect your business and its data from cybercriminals. To provide a solid wall of protection around your business, you need to pair compliance with cybersecurity; one is not sufficient without the other.
An Easy Target
Businesses in the healthcare vertical, be aware that you are an especially easy target to hackers. One account breached can mean a door opened to a wealth of protected health information (PHI) for multiple individuals. This type of compromise can mean legal fees, reputational damage, and ransom monies paid – aside from all of the data compromised that you need to recover. Being compliant with HIPAA regulations will not protect you from any of this damage.
Everyone is Responsible
It’s important that cybersecurity be taken into consideration and made as a joint effort by everyone at a company – from the employee’s with access to all of the records, to the highest level executives who must oversee the rollout and enforcement of the policies and procedures to not only protect patient data, but also the jobs of everyone they employ.
Simple Math
Compliance does not equal cybersecurity. But paired together, they can provide a business with a solid foundation to build upon and grow securely, rather than recover and repair from chaotically.
