The Painful Reality of Ransomware and How to Protect Against It

Imagine if in a split second you were unable to access all of your patients’ health care records. A cruel ransomware attack had locked you out of your computer system, and in order to regain your precious data you needed to pay a cybercriminal’s demand in bitcoin.

Unfortunately by the time you finish reading this article several businesses in the U.S. will experience this dreadful reality. Most commonly the disaster will occur when an infected email attachment is opened and spreads through a network.

Health care providers have a significantly higher risk of being targeted by ransomware. The reason for this is simple: you possess a large amount of data that is valuable to cybercriminals. In addition, hackers know you need to access medical records, digital x-rays, and test results to provide medical services to your patients. This, they hope, will motivate you to meet their demands to get your protected health information back.

A sudden disruption to a business proves to be a strong impetus. Nearly three-quarters of businesses infected by ransomware pay up to recover their data. Studies show, however, that less than half of them receive the necessary decryption key to unlock their data. The good news is there’s a simple, secure solution to avoid going through this painful scenario.

Ironclad Data Protection

Many practices don’t have the expertise, time or resources to deal with a ransomware attack. Many feel confident that their IT service provider has addressed security and backup needs in the event of a disaster. As a leading provider of HIPAA compliance software, we know several cases where a practice’s IT provider has not properly backed up their system. This can put you in the unenviable position of having to deal with unsavory cybercriminals. Here’s how our OfficeSafe software protects your data with the most secure online backup storage service available, and alleviates worries about a ransomware attack.

We provide a HIPAA compliant data backup solution with 256-bit encryption and SQL database restoration. This makes backing up and restoring your practice’s crucial data easy. In the event of a ransomware attack, you’ll have ten days of data backup, enabling your practice to easily find a clean data backup set. This is critically important. If your practice doesn’t have the capability to reinstate your data to multiple restore points in the past, you don’t have a sufficient disaster recovery solution.

OfficeSafe’s centralized management portal is designed for healthcare service providers and goes beyond file-and-folder backups, delivering a secure hybrid local and cloud solution. With our point-to-point encryption, you can use your existing email address to send messages via Gmail and other popular email client services. OfficeSafe also includes an emergency planning tool that helps members of your team expedite their response to unexpected situations.

The HIPAA Security Rule mandates that ransomware on your computer system or on that of a business associate must be reported to the government, as well as to the affected patients. If more than 500 records have been breached, you need to alert the media. The only caveat to this rule is if you can prove there’s a low probability that your protected health information has been compromised. Don’t let an unexpected incident cripple your business and tarnish your practice’s reputation.

Call us today at (800) 588-0254 or find out how we can work alongside your IT team to provide your business with full data protection in the event of a disaster.