HIPAA compliance demands a comprehensive, multi-faceted security plan. As discussed in an article from Health IT Security, healthcare companies and providers face challenges on multiple fronts when it comes to remaining HIPAA compliant. What are some key tips for meeting HIPAA standards? 1) Take advantage of technological developments Rapid changes in technology offer both challenges and opportunities for easier compliance. On the one hand, these changes mean that companies need to devote resources to regularly updating their IT set-up and fighting against new threats. On the other hand, new technologies can offer cost-effective, reliable improvements in cyber security, making it easier for companies to safely store and transmit patient data. For example, companies can rely on HIPAA compliant cloud servers to store data instead of using a relatively less safe local server. And even though mobile devices have introduced new compliance issues, companies can adopt strong mobile device management strategies. 2) Conduct thorough employee training Even if you’re using top-notch technological solutions to comply with HIPAA regulations, you’ll remain vulnerable to data breaches and audit failures if you don’t train employees properly. Employee training should cover a variety of bad habits, such as thoughtlessly emailing patient information, sharing passwords openly or failing to log out of software programs containing patient information. Furthermore, employees should have levels of access to information commensurate with their position and responsibilities. Even after employees undergo training, it’s imperative for management to keep monitoring for unsafe behaviors. 3) Keep an eye on businesses you work with Healthcare companies and medical practices often collaborate with a variety of third-party vendors and other businesses. Depending on the data you share with them, you need to know if these businesses adhere to rigorous cyber security standards. Otherwise, they can potentially compromise your patients’ private information and undermine your HIPAA compliance. It’s critical that you coordinate your compliance with other businesses. Make sure that your partners are aware of HIPAA regulations and have a strong handle on them; you can outline steps for them to take and provide clear guidelines for HIPAA compliance. 4) Don’t neglect routine tests and internal audits Whatever tools and strategies you use to comply with HIPAA regulations, you’ll need to supplement them with routine monitoring, tests and internal audits. For example, if you set up a seemingly powerful system for detecting and blocking unauthorized access to your company’s network, how do you know that it works? Furthermore, are you keeping detailed and accurate records of failures in your system or lapses in security? You should regularly review your cyber security risks and adherence to HIPAA standards. Don’t wait for an external audit or an embarrassing data breach to alert you to problems developing in your company. Maintaining HIPAA compliance may seem daunting, and it does present various challenges requiring a comprehensive plan. However, you can work with IT experts to help ensure compliance and safeguard your company against security breaches. Don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss HIPAA regulations and come up with solutions tailored to your company.

The New ?Buzz? Phrase is “Contextual Data? One dominant force in 2016 will be contextualized data analytics, as the spotlight is being shined on the need for more precise decisions made possible by bringing relevant data into important contexts. In a simpler sentence – the right source for the right analysis. Data points – device, social network, location, influencers, language – will help businesses develop improved customer insights, and, in turn, more personalized products or services. For instance, telematic data will help automobile manufacturers improve the durability of vehicle components and pinpoint potential problems ? they are then able to notify drivers well before trouble occurs. This technology will also provide insurers with better information for managing risk, thus enabling them to offer drivers a better product in the form of more usage-based, personalized policies. To take this a giant step further, this kind of data revolution could eliminate the concept of risk pooling as it would enable insurers to underwrite down to the individual level. There Will Be More Cybertargets More contextually-rich data is more valuable ? to businesses and, unfortunately, also to cybercriminals. Increasing risks of cyberattacks will push the development of next-generation technologies for risk and information management, network security, and identity access protection. Public clouds will become more and more involved in the integration of contextual data and will need to be included in security system architectures. APIs Will Continue to Gain in Importance Businesses of all kinds have already discovered the power of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and will continue to utilize them. Through APIs, different systems can access and exchange information, and they often serve as ?wrappers? around legacy systems. APIs will increasingly play a key role in providing contextual information and will cause a move away from an in-house IT mentality. Instead, there will be an increasing embrace of off-site infrastructure, cloud computing, and ?as-a-service? options offered by IT services firms. The Role of the CIO Will Continue to Develop The Chief Information Officer will increasingly take on the task of enhancing the value of technology and information to their company. The CIO is uniquely positioned to head up the development of appropriate digital business innovations which will then lead to improved decisions and the introduction of competitive products quickly and at scale. Consolidation of Enterprise Platform Players Will Continue As the recent news of a Dell/EMC ?mega-merger? illustrates, there will continue to be convergence and consolidation of enterprise infrastructure competitors. This is being propelled by the demands of the market which wants more complete, standardized, and agile solutions. Because converged infrastructure is trending toward public cloud solutions, look for more specialization to create specific workload approaches in specific industries. For instance, new telematics platforms will arrive on the scene to collect and manage data from connected automobiles, financial services platforms will integrate to create core banking services, and social and mobile platforms will converge Conclusion The only thing you can say for certain about the future of IT, is that some previously unthought-of innovations will appear in 2016 or beyond. This makes IT an exciting and stimulating field to be a part of. To help you make sense of all these new developments and to stay ahead of your competition, please contact us.  

  Does your IT services department have an IT recovery plan in place? If the answer is yes, is it adequate? To create a solid plan these steps are recommended:Look at your current plan (if any) and assess what level of protection is needed.       Determine the length of time your business can afford to have its system(s) be non-operational. Determine how much data you can afford to lose. Identify all critical servers, applications, and related software. Document the process necessary to bring your server(s) back online in the event of a failure. Assess the availability of your IT personnel should an unpredictable disaster occur. If you have an outside consultant, how fast can this person get to your premises? Testing: It?s not enough to just have a plan in place, it must be tested to make sure it works, and it must be updated at least once a year. If your recovery plan has never been tested, how do you know that it will even work? You don?t want to wait until your first recovery attempt to discover its weaknesses. Be smart and test your current system as soon as possible. Find out how long it takes to recover, and what problems occur during the process. Recovery Plan Help: If the above sounds a little overwhelming, we can assist you to design a backup and recovery plan. Our expertise will minimize your downtime and have you back up and running in a very short time. Please contact us for more information.

Data backup and disaster recovery are both important elements of preserving your business in the long run. Data backup makes copies of your organization?s data infrastructure and, depending on the solution, backs them up to several possible locations. On the other hand, disaster recovery focuses on restoring your data following a crippling disaster. Combined, they make up what?s called a Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution, which is capable of taking regular backups throughout the workday and rapidly restoring data in the face of disaster. Here are three types of disasters that a good BDR solution can protect your business?s data from. Natural DisastersIt doesn?t matter where your office is located–the truth is that you?re bound to encounter a natural disaster in at least some capacity. Organizations on the coast might experience flooding or rain storms that damage their physical infrastructure. Locations prone to tornadoes or earthquakes could see their operations plummet (or soar–literally) in the face of nature?s awesome destructive power. Power outages and fires are two of the most common natural disasters, and they?re so dangerous because they can happen to any business. BDR can, at the very least, safeguard your data until the disaster has passed. Hardware FailureA notorious cause of data loss is an unexpected hardware failure. This can happen if you ignore the telltale signs of hardware degradation for too long, or if you?re using an old or outdated workstation or server. Thankfully, hardware failure is easy enough to avoid? that is, assuming you know what to look for. An outsourced IT company like White Mountain IT Services can remotely monitor your technology solutions to ensure that any hardware failure symptoms are quickly (and quietly) addressed. The idea is to keep an eye out for problems that hint toward an imminent failure, and to take action before it happens to smooth over the process of replacing the failed piece of hardware. User ErrorArguably one of the most common causes of data loss is user error. This occurs when a user makes a mistake that leads to either compromised data or the destruction of important information. Believe it or not, this happens more often than you?d think, particularly with employees who have access to information that they shouldn?t have access to. You can mitigate this issue by cutting employee permissions to data they have no business seeing, like human resources information or accounting files. If you want to protect your organization?s digital assets in the most convenient way possible, consider implementing a BDR solution from White Mountain IT Services. Our BDR can back up your data as often as every fifteen minutes and restore it in a matter of moments. BDR even allows you to restore data directly to the BDR device following a disaster, which minimizes downtime and lets you get back in action as soon as possible following a major data loss incident.

More specifically, the survey (run by data management firm Liaison Technologies) delivered results demonstrating that, of the 479 executives of medium-to-large-sized United States organizations surveyed, 47 percent of them were uncertain of which standards would even apply to their particular industry. This uncertainty could cause enormous problems for an organization of any size. If an issue were to arise that complying with industry regulations could have prevented, the company in question would have a lot of very difficult answers to provide. What?s more, the issue could very well cause the company to fail; either directly, by hindering its activities to the point of bankruptcy, or indirectly, if client and customer faith in the company were shaken enough by its lack of preparation. Look at it this way, if you had entrusted sensitive personal information to a company only to find out that their noncompliance with basic security standards had put you at risk, would you continue doing business with that company? It?s probably a safe bet that the answer is a resounding ?no.? However, the State of Compliance survey revealed that this very scenario could be happening all the time. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was only reported to be ?applicable? in 3 percent of client responses, a number shockingly small when one considers that the PCI DSS applies to any and all entities that interact with cardholder data storage, processing, or transmission. Making an already alarming situation even worse, a full quarter of survey respondents admitted that they were ?unsure? of who in their operation held primary responsibility over information security and privacy. As a result, this full quarter of surveyed businesses could very easily have serious information security and privacy issues that have gone (or could later go) unnoticed. Perhaps most disconcerting was the fact that a full 85 percent of respondents still felt secure in their job, whether or not their company exhibited any compliance issues. We here at White Mountain IT Services think this is an unacceptable situation, and we would hope that you feel the same way. Moreover, we can help ensure that you are, in fact, fully compliant with any information-based regulations for your industry. For more information, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.