What is an e-health data breach? Have you ever heard of this term before or not? If not, then this article is for you. This will give details about what e-health data breaches are and how to avoid them.
e-Health Data Breach
An e-health data breach is when personal health information (PHI) is stolen or lost by a breach of security. As we know that most data breaches affect personal information whether it is about your identity, financial records, social security number, or medical records.
So, if you are thinking, why do you need to be aware of this term? Is it the same as a data breach? Then let me answer: Yes and No.
Yes because e-health data breach affects your medical records and it can cause serious problems for the patient and his/her family. Not only this, but this can also destroy patients’ trust in their hospitals and clinics as well as in the healthcare provider.
No, because usually the breach only affects the medical records and information of one person. It may affect many patients but it does not affect all the patients. For example: If a hospital employee uses a USB drive to download a patient’s medical record from the hospital servers, then it will be regarded as a data breach.
The main reason for an e-health data breach is weak security measures. The main goal of this article is to inform you about the e-health data breach and how to avoid it by securing your sensitive information from getting stolen by anyone.
How to Avoid E-health Data Breach?
There are lots of things that you can do to secure your PHI from getting stolen or lost by anyone. The main goal is that you can protect your valuable personal health information from being accessed or stolen from anyone else.
Here are some best practices which you can follow:
- Always keep a backup copy of your medical records so if any incident happens, then you have a copy on your hand which you can access at any time anywhere.
- Always change your password at regular intervals. So that no one else can hack into your account and access your valuable personal health information.
- Always set up strong passwords for each website with which you have registered them. So no one else can hack into your account and access your PHI online as well as on any other devices such as mobiles or computers etcetera.
- Always use two-factor authentication on every single service that supports it. So that no one else can log in to your account.
- Use security software such as antivirus software and firewall. So that no one can steal your PHI by installing any kind of harmful software such as spyware, malware, etcetera.
- Always stay alert when you login into your account and make sure that no one is looking over your shoulder.
- Always delete the information after your use. So that no one else can access it and use it for any malicious purpose.
Conclusion
The above-given points are just a few guidelines that you should follow to secure your PHI from getting stolen or lost by anyone. So, what do you think about this article? Did you learn something new from this article?
