Most of our clients and their employees are now working remotely and it is no surprise that doing so brings a host of new challenges and risks.  This advisory from Chubb offers excellent advise for your organization to manage and mitigate these risks.  More specifically, you should ensure that:

- local bandwidth and network connections can accommodate your data communication needs;
- hardware and software is up to date with appropriate security protocols in place;
- your team is aligned in regard to the importance of cyber security and being able to identify "red flags" as they surface;
- manage closely and monitor any security exceptions;
- connect only via secure networks;
- utilize and update consistently strong passwords;
- download and click from trusted resources only;
- closely manage and monitor the sharing of confidential information; and
- exercise extreme caution when responding to requests for personally identifiable information or passwords.

We are here to assist you during these trying times - please reach out to us for additional resources in protecting your remote workers and their data.

 

According to Bitglass, a cloud security company, the total number of breaches of protected health information (PHI) doubled from 2018- 2019. This trend matched the increase (doubling) of breaches from 2017-2019.

These breaches affected over 27 million individuals, based on:
1) Hacking or IT Incidents
2) Unauthorized Access
3) Loss or Theft
4) Other Miscellaneous Loss of Data.

This is Bitglass’ six annual Healthcare Breach Report, and uses data posted to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ “Wall of Shame,” which tracks the loss or breach of health records.

In 2019, ‘hacking and IT incidents’ accounted for 60% of all data loss, according to Anurag Kahol, CTO of Bitglass. Healthcare practices and databases are rich targets for cyber-criminals, given the amount of sensitive information that they include.

The article also notes that the cost per breached record was $429 in 2019 and that data breaches cost healthcare organizations $11.8 Billion

For more information about the report, please visit: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200219005071/en/Bitglass-2020-Healthcare-Breach-Report-27-Million
 

I am an avid NPR and Planet Money podcast listener. Why? Well, it is always fun to learn more about the economy- plus the presenters take complex 'subjects' and present them in an easily accessible form or story.

This week I was listening to the recent Planet Money podcast about cyber insurance (episode #886 The Price of a Hack), and I almost stopped dead in my tracks. It was the perfect way to help my clients better hear/lean about the impact of cyber insurance, because it was told in story form- not in  wonky legal insurance speak. After listening to it, I was so excited I even ran upstairs to tell my wife, who is a saint because she always listens to my geeky insurance stories (for the record she is an artist and way cooler that I am in every way). 

In any event, if you are curious about cyber insurance, interested in how to plan for a hack, or just love economic stories, check it out. The link is below: episode-886-the-price-of-a-hack