How to Overcome HIPAA Myths to Enhance the Protection of Healthcare Data

For many of us, change is hard. In cybersecurity, change is essential to defeat two of the most common causes of data breaches: the ever-evolving attack styles of hackers and human error. New products and features designed to protect data from the latest attack vectors and human errors are released regularly. While innovation is crucial to prevent data loss, there’s an understandable tension between the need to adopt new technology and the inherent risk any new technology brings. It’s safe to assume that securing protected healthcare information (PHI) would be a top priority for healthcare IT and security professionals, even if HIPAA didn’t require it. Nonetheless, despite the hard work and vigilance of their IT and security teams, many healthcare organizations still experience data breaches. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 40 data breaches involving PHI, contained in more than one million records, were reported in January 2023.