Essential education on cyber security in healthcare

These essential steps to your facility’s cyber security were provided by Joseph Wager, MS, RCP, senior risk management and patient safety specialist for the Cooperative of American Physicians in Los Angeles:

1. Make sure your IT department has implemented these basics and taught them to all staff:

• Make sure your system has a competent firewall installed and activated.

• Always have an efficient anti-spyware and anti-virus program.

• Do not open any attachments or files from your e-mail if you don’t recognize the sender.

2. Educate all staff members on these issues:

• what constitutes a potential data security incident;

• misuse of sensitive information, such as posting of patient information on a social website;

• potential malware infections;

• dangers of losing laptop or other electronic storage devices, or hard-copy documents;

• requirement to report any of the above to the risk management and IT departments.