This article is sponsored by Celerium. Celerium Inc. engineers automated data breach detection and containment solutions that are easy to implement and manage with minimal IT effort.
Hospital executives, including CEOs, COOs, CMOs, CNIOs, and others, play a critical role in data breach defense. While they are more familiar with operations than IT staff, they are also responsible for overseeing hospital systems such as EHR/EMR, billing, telemedicine, radiology, and others. These executives are primarily concerned with HIPAA compliance, patient safety, reputational damage, and financial consequences like regulatory fines and lawsuits. That’s why it’s crucial for hospital leadership to be involved in data breach defense. Here are ways that executives can get more involved.
Hospital executives must work closely with IT/IS teams to develop an incident response plan (IRP) that includes clear policies and procedures for preventing data breaches. Executives need to ensure that IT implements standard security measures, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), data encryption, patch management, and employee training. However, IT often needs executive support to overcome obstacles like resistance to MFA, securing legacy systems, and ensuring consistent employee training to prevent phishing attacks.