Secureworld Atlanta just finished up. Turns out cyber experts do agree about many of the same issues we discuss here. Two days of discussions amongst CISOs, ISOs, security techies, etc. about what to worry about and what to do for cyber protections. Yes, there was a lot of really nerdy discussions but the good news is the central themes do not require geek speak to share with you.

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Have you considered that there are other valuable information assets to protect than just PHI? Most healthcare privacy and security programs only focus on PHI and HIPAA requirements. If you are already doing the work why not include all of your valuable information assets. It is time to ask yourself what data should we protect?

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This time of year many of us think about cleaning out closets and switching seasons. By clearing out your digital clutter you can double check the security of your devices and reduce your attack surface at the same time. Plus, it is way easier than cleaning out the old hall closet that may have monsters lurking in the back of it. Make the time to clean your digital clutter at least once or twice a year and you will feel better for it. Why not do digital spring cleaning, too?

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There is a frequent issue with people understanding what a Security Risk Analysis includes. In fact, there is so much confusion we often see documents presented as a risk analysis that is actually a gap analysis. It happens so often that OCR is trying to address it in their April newsletter. We are going to take a stab at explaining what gap analysis reports look like vs what a security risk analysis report really includes when done properly.

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Back in January, I read an article in Forbes titled: The Five Laws Of Cybersecurity. When reading it I realized that it was a great message to our listeners but it needed a HIPAA flavor added it to it. This episode we add our thoughts to his article and turn it into 5 Laws of HIPAA Cybersecurity.

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More news on the insider front makes it necessary to point out, again, how susceptible healthcare is to insider failures.

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The American Medical Association (AMA) did a survey of physicians and their thoughts about privacy and security practices. It was interesting to hear their responses. Also, when a group of Security Officers gets together for a chat some people glaze over. For nerds like us, it is an exciting discussion. Today we are going to discuss the Security Officer panel topics and the AMA report presentation from the National HIPAA Summit.

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Are you ready for extreme vendor vetting? Many vendors have been pushing back against any covered entity or business associate that asked them to answer questions about their privacy and security programs. They believe signing a business associate agreement (BAA) meets the legal requirements and that is all they must do. Well, the times they are a changing - again. There are many different factors making it necessary to ask these type questions and not just accept a BAA as reasonable assurances. What are those factors and how things are changing are the topics we discuss in this episode.

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The National HIPAA Summit always features some interesting news from OCR concerning guidance, enforcement, and audits. This year was no different. In this episode, we discuss the highlights as we interpreted them anyway.

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Cybersecurity trends sound scary when you hear us talk about some of this stuff. Cyberscary is actually what we decided to call it. The good news is we do talk about other things sometimes. There are two reports that came out in recent weeks have gotten my attention and just have to be discussed with you guys.

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