October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Protect Your Practice

Sponsored by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the perfect time to make sure your dental office is protected against hackers and in compliance with the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Dental practices are attractive targets for cybercriminals because they store personal, financial, and protected health information (PHI). A single breach can disrupt operations, cause costly fines, and damage patient trust.

Quick Tips to Stay Secure

• Train your team: Remind dental healthcare personnel (DHCP) how to spot phishing emails and suspicious links.
• Strengthen logins: Use strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication.
• Update regularly: Keep software, devices, and firewalls up to date to close security gaps.
• Back-up data: Use secure, encrypted backups and test them often.
• Control access: Give DHCP access only to what they need, and review permissions regularly.
• Stay HIPAA-compliant: Conduct a HIPAA Security Risk Analysis to identify and fix vulnerabilities.

Take Action This Month

Use Cybersecurity Awareness Month as a reminder to review your policies, refresh DHCP training, and double-check your data safeguards. A little prevention today can save your practice from costly problems tomorrow.

For our OSHA Review subscribers… The July/August 2022 issue of OSHA Review in Section X of your OSHA Review binder covers HIPAA requirements and includes information about securing PHI.