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Community Corner

Lessons Learned from Data Breaches

Data breaches – the unintentional release of secure information – are rampant, terrifying, and inextricably damaging to those who are affected.  Your financial information, your health information, your kid’s birthdates, and every other bit of personal information that exists about you is fair game in the hands of computer hackers.

When a powerful hacking organization was able to infiltrate the computer networks of large global companies including 7-Eleven Inc., French retailer Carrefour SA, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc., it was able to steal more than 160 million credit card numbers, user names, passwords and personal identification information.  Losses totaled more than $300 million to the corporations involved and the identity-theft victims’ losses were so massive they were deemed “immeasurable.”   Called the “largest hacking scheme in U.S. history,” it went on for seven years until a sneaky group of Russian and Ukranian perpetrators were apprehended and charged with the crime in late July.

Want more examples?  This powerful info graphic provides a laundry list of company after company that have succumbed to hackers, insecure data, or the simple loss of a laptop or other equipment, including an internal breach at Apple traced to an affiliate app developing company, and one at retail giant T.J. Maxx caused by an unsecured Wi-Fi network.  Even the U.S. Military isn’t safe.

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The sheer size and scope of these breaches proves that our information really isn’t safe anywhere.  Click on any one of the bubbles in the info graphic here for all the details.  And get ready to be horrified.

So what can be learned from these breaches?

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  • Always keep personal and financial information stored in a backup database in case your website or organization is exposed to hackers.
  • Let consumers or patients know immediately when a breach is discovered that their information may have been exposed.
  • Keep passwords, Wi-Fi networks, computers and mobile devices secure at all times by constantly updating passwords and security information.

At HIPAA HITECH Express we help providers avoid the risk of a data breach and its costly aftermath.  For more information on data breaches and how to protect your medical office from a devastating incident, please visit our website at www.qipsolutions.com



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