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Over the past several years, physicians and other ancillary healthcare workers have shifted away from paper documentation to the use of electronic medical records (EMRs). The establishment of the Medicare and Medicaid Incentive Programs (now called the Promoting Interoperability Programs) by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2011 has further served to hasten this transition. Under this program, providers and eligible health facilities receive federal payments for their adoption and utilization of electronic health systems.

With this increase in medical data being stored electronically, it is essential to have a disaster recovery plan in place to ensure that your healthcare facility can still function if its data is lost or corrupted. An effective disaster recovery plan lets you restore your medical data and resume normal processes with minimal downtime following any type of data loss. Without a disaster recovery plan, your business may have a delayed recovery or even fail following any type of significant data loss.

Remember the 3-2-1 data backup rule? It states that it's a best practice to replicate at least three copies of data stored on two different media, with at least one copy off-site or off-premise. IT professionals often use an additional step; the backup rule is now 3-2-1-1. That extra “1” accounts for an air-gapped copy of your data.

Cybersecurity, once considered an afterthought, plays an important role in the ultimate success or failure of most organizations. This is especially the case for businesses that have a strong digital presence and conducts some, if not the majority, of their transactions online. With cybercriminals constantly looking for new and innovative ways to compromise business networks, it is essential to have an updated cybersecurity strategy to ensure that your network remains protected. Failing to have an effective cybersecurity strategy in place can be costly for impacted businesses; in 2018, the global average cost of a data breach was $3.86 million which was a 4.8 percent increase from the previous year.

With the internet now an indispensable aspect of the lives of most people, cybersecurity can no longer be considered an afterthought. On a daily basis, people conduct financial transactions as well as exchange their private information over the internet. This trove of data exchanged has become a target for cybercriminals who devote their time and resources devising ways to access and exploit sensitive data. With recent reports revealing that the average cost of a cyber attack is over $1 million, it is essential to make sure that your business is fully protected from any form of cyber threat.

Some cyberattacks can be fairly easy to notice. A phishing email might be identified by the sender address, formatting, or the address of a link, while vishing could be identified by someone asking prying questions over the phone. Some attacks, however, may be tougher to spot. There are a few types of these, one of the most notable being pharming.

Ransomware is an ever-growing problem, affecting thousands of businesses every day. According to the Kaspersky Security Bulletin, a firm is hit with Ransomware every 40 seconds. Even when you think you may have outsmarted an attacker, new variants of ransomware and tactics to attack arise and lock your files away for ransom. Because of this, ransomware is not likely to see a downward trend anytime soon; with more attacks imminent, how can you avoid exposure?

You’ve probably heard of phishing, the infamous practice by which a hacker may try to trick you into giving away sensitive information via email. However, there is much more to phishing than just a suspicious email here or there; as individuals and businesses become more savvy about threats like those that may come via email, cybercriminals expand their arsenal of tools to cost you precious time and money. One example of this is smishing.

With the incidence of cyber threats growing more rapidly than ever, the issue of security has been brought to the forefront of every CIO’s mind. Today, cybercrime is a billion dollar enterprise, and it’s on the rise. In 2018, high profile cyberattacks plagued some of the world's largest organizations, releasing the personal records of millions, if not billions. With the incidence of cyberattacks growing year over year, no organization, regardless of size or industry, is free from the risk of data breach. It is no longer a question of if your company will be attacked, but when. For this reason, it is important now, more than ever, to implement a proactive approach to cybersecurity.

There are all kinds of strategies that businesses need to implement to be successful, existing across numerous different business functions. A key one that is commonly overlooked is a mitigation strategy. 

Risk mitigation is the process of developing actionable insights that reduce threats to the overall well-being of an organization. Threats come in all shapes and sizes, from natural disasters to cyber-attacks. These threats can cause thousands of dollars in damage that is both physical and virtual. Thus, creating a mitigation plan will help to save you money, as well as improve your business continuity strategy.

Phishing is a widely known cybersecurity risk; you’ve probably heard of it. A cybercriminal sends a convincing email, complete with a link to what looks like a company’s website at first glance, only to attempt to obtain your login credentials for their own use. Over the past decade, consumers and businesses alike have been taking steps to protect themselves from this threat. What you may not know, however, is that there are various types of phishing attacks beyond those carried out exclusively over email. One such type is vishing.