NEWS FROM THE EDGE

Tech Tips and Advice from the Experts at Dynamic Edge

Are You Taking IT Security Seriously?

Check out Bruce Giving Expert Advice To Michigan CPAs. Bruce will be hashing through the security fundamentals that every business need to have in place to (1) avoid compliance risks and (2) protect sensitive data from hackers’ eyes.

Bruce’s talk entitled “HIPAA, Third-Party Vendor Management and Cybersecurity: Side Effects Include” is aimed at CPAs to ensure they know steps to take to protect their healthcare clients from being susceptible to undue risk.

Bruce’s message is clear—cyber threat are getting worse. Both in magnitude and scope, hackers are targeting more and more local businesses. It doesn’t matter your size, if you’re ‘easy pickings’ (i.e., don’t have your IT security ducks in a row), you’re increasingly gambling your business’ future in the hands of cyber criminals that have been getting sneakier and more sophisticated. Day after day, attacks are getting directed at well-known vulnerabilities in enterprise systems and phishing attacks are getting more targeted where the emails actually sound like you (thanks minimal research from social media outlets like LinkedIn and Facebook). BUT Bruce’s biggest concern is that over 80% of businesses aren’t even protecting the basics like patches and updates that completely open the door to attacks.

EVEN MORE: Healthcare is a growing target to cyber attackers because personal health information can have high returns on the black market. Cybercriminals are specifically directing their attacks to specific vulnerabilities plaguing healthcare systems (medical offices, insurance companies, hospitals) because stealing health data has become as easy as stealing candy from a baby. Healthcare offices just don’t follow very simple steps to control data access.

AND COSTS ARE GOING UP: You might expect that costs to remediate the effects of an attack have gone up. Cleaning up a cyberattack is much more involved than cleaning up a broken window and re-shelving your merchandise!

AND THE FINES ARE WATERFALLING DOWN: Health and Human Services (HHS) has started vigorously auditing any business that handles health data! Increased auditing pressures. HHS is in dire straits with massive budget deficits. Expect to find more ‘speeding tickets’ to come if you’re at fault for even minor infractions!

Interested in Learning How You and Your Staff Can Be Secure?

Not Sure How Your Accounting Firm Can Help Your Healthcare Clients Stay HIPAA Compliant?

Consider joining us for a discussion on accountant cyber security and HIPAA protection for clients.

Title of Talk: “HIPAA, Third-Party Vendor Management and Cybersecurity: Side Effects Include”

DescriptionDo you suffer from HIPAA-chondria? This condition of over-anxiety is caused by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA) evolving requirements for vendor risk management and integration made more potent by ongoing cyberattacks. Assess the risks for healthcare organizations seeking to protect patient data from an evolving cybersecurity nightmare while working with third-party vendors to provide needed services. Our experts address the overall outlook of the HIPAA, vendor and cybersecurity puzzle for 2017 and beyond.”

Date: April 26th, 2017

Location: MICPA Healthcare Conference

Laurel Manor

39000 Schoolcraft Rd

Livonia MI, 48150-1036

Can’t make the MICPA event, but still concerned with keeping your office secure and compliant? Let us know and we’ll send you a link to the meeting and some specific worksheets to make sure your business is secure for HIPAA, PCI or just cyber secure.

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