This is Why Cybersecurity Training is Important for Healthcare Organizations

Posted by Tonni Islam

When patients visit your healthcare facility, they trust you to keep their information private and secure. However, healthcare providers are some of the largest targets for cybercriminals. 

Therefore, it is essential to provide proper healthcare cybersecurity training. Keep reading this article to learn more about cybersecurity training, its importance, and how to ensure the best education for your workforce. 

Why Cybersecurity Training is Crucial in Healthcare

Cybersecurity training is not needed for HIPAA compliance but it is usually part of the overall training program. HIPAA training is required.

Your healthcare facility can experience IT breaches resulting in fines, legal problems, and more. 

Most cyber attacks target health companies due to the value of the data. Additionally, there has been a rising problem of healthcare employees selling customer data for hundreds of dollars. 

Therefore, threats can come from outside your organization and inside your organization. That being said, how can you protect your healthcare company from these types of data abuse and digital attacks? 

Healthcare Cyber Security Training

1. Complete A Needs Analysis

To start out, complete a needs analysis for your employee training. This helps you understand what your employees already know, as well as where they need to improve. Otherwise, you may be redundant in your training. 

That means you’re wasting time teaching something that they already know and distracting them from focusing on what they need to learn. It also allows you to assess your most vulnerable areas. 

2. Bring Supervisors In

Whoever is responsible for delivering training or whoever pays for them should be involved in the decision-making process for your cybersecurity training. 

When you have stakeholders high in the organization getting involved in training, you’ll have a better understanding of how to navigate the entire organization toward successful security.

3. Written Procedures

You should have a manual or resource that helps your employees understand exactly what to do step by step to protect patient data. 

4. Engage In Ongoing Training

At least once per year, you should enroll team members in cybersecurity training. The more you engage in training, the fresher the protocols will be in their head.

5. Identify Your Network-Connected Operations

Understand which devices are connected to the internet. These will have additional vulnerabilities to intrusion or cyber hacking. 

6. Vendors And Third Parties

Your third-party associates should also be trained in cyber security. After all, your security protocols are only as strong as the weakest link.

Get Healthcare Compliance Consulting Today

The right healthcare compliance consulting can make all the difference. ComplyAssistant is an objective third-party entity that can help you understand your compliance process. 

If you need help improving your policies, procedures, or documentation when it comes to healthcare compliance, look no further. We will help you reduce your cybersecurity risk and protect patient information now and going forward.