5 Key Strategies to Protect Patient Data 

With the increased use of electronic systems and digital storage of patient data, the risk of a data breach in healthcare and life sciences is at an all-time high. Check Point Research released data showing that the global volume of cyberattacks reached an average of 1168 weekly attacks per organization at the end of 2022, with healthcare organizations being the third highest target. According to the World Economic Forum, healthcare industry data breaches cost an average of $10.93 million per breach in 2023; and according to the HIPAA Journal, 2024 saw the protected health information of over 276 million individuals exposed or stolen (an average of 758,288 records per day.)  

In addition to the significant financial losses – costs of recovery, fines, and reputational damage – cyberattacks can disrupt patient care, leading to delays in treatments, misdiagnoses, and even increased mortality rates. It’s imperative to take steps to protect patient data, and your strategies should include the following: 

  1. Educating and Training Staff: Human error or negligence can result in expensive consequences for healthcare organizations. It can be mitigated through security awareness training, which equips staff with the knowledge necessary to make smart decisions when handling patient data.  

  1. Implementing Access Controls: You can bolster data protection by restricting access to patient information and applications to only users who need it to perform their jobs. Security methods like multi-factor authentication require users to validate their identity before accessing sensitive information.  

  1. Implementing Data Usage Controls: Going beyond access controls, data usage controls restrict how data can be used after access is granted. This ensures patient data is protected from misuse and unauthorized activities, and suspicious activities are flagged or blocked in real time. 

  1. Logging, Monitoring, and Auditing: Once access and data usage controls are in place, you can regularly audit which users are accessing what information and from what devices and locations. This enables you to proactively watch for issues and fully investigate suspicious activities. These logs are also crucial for responding to regulatory audits. 

  1. Data Encryption: Providing a last, robust safeguard against theft or manipulation, data encryption applied both at rest (i.e., in storage) and in transit (i.e., during transmission over the network) makes it exponentially more difficult for potential threats to decipher patient information even if they get access to the data.  

Each year, cybersecurity threats to sensitive patient data are on the rise. Protecting that data is essential to both ensure the safety of patients and a business’ bottom line. Preparing a strategy and implementing the techniques above will reduce the chances of you and your patients being victimized.