UCLA Care announced in July 2015 that they had become yet another victim of cyber attack, resulting in the mass loss of personal information. This breach was enormous: It may have reached upwards of 4.5 million individuals. At the heart of the problem was the fact that UCLA did not take basic necessary steps to encrypt patient data, and the computers systems used by healthcare providers in general are easily exploited.
The growing trend of major security breaches and compromised confidential information, particularly from healthcare provider databases, is a major industry concern. In the case of this latest UCLA data breach, the system seems to have been exploited undetected since September of 2014 until its recent discovery, totaling almost 4 years. The compromised information included personal data that thieves love, such as social security numbers, medical records, ID numbers, and addresses.
Prevent Further Data Breaches
To keep data breaches like this from happening in the future, healthcare providers need to implement a system for managing information that is both highly secure and user-friendly. Document management software (DMS) is the ideal choice for storing, retrieving, and sharing information in a focused, organized, and secure way.
DMS by eFileCabinet is some of the most powerful on the market, and it includes the tough security features to help prevent UCLA-scale exploitation of personal information from happening in the future.
DMS Security
eFileCabinet uses 256-bit encryption, automated role-based access, and frequent backups to keep information stored as securely as possible.
When confidential information needs to be shared electronically, DMS is the ideal solution. eFileCabinet’s client portal, SecureDrawer, offers the flexibility and security to keep information flowing to the right people without being compromised.
Security measures included with SecureDrawer are:
- 256-bit encryption (eFileCabinet standard)
- Additional password to view the information (much stronger security than email)
- Virtually no size limit on information that needs to be shared
- with standard email transmission there is a size limit
The frequency of major data breaches is indicative of the skills, proficiency, and innovative tactics that can be deployed by hackers, many of whom are off-shore. Theft of personal medical information, and its contribution to identity theft is a problem that is only getting worse. The misuse of this data can be more damaging than even credit card theft. With the theft of credit card information, financial liability is limited by federal law to $50, but the loss of medical information can be far more costly. The majority of victims of medical identity theft lost $13,500 on average to resolve the crime, and only 10% of respondents report achieving a completely satisfactory conclusion of the data breach incident to boot. Those who resolved the crime had to spend 200+ hours on activities such as working with their insurer or health-care provider, verifying their personal health information, medical invoices, claims, and electronic health records to ensure accuracy and to make sure their personal medical credentials were secured and can no longer be used by an imposter
To contact eFileCabinet and receive a free consultation and demonstration of our secure DMS, fill out the form on this page. Our products can provide a much more secure infrastructure as well as benefits in efficiency and organization, helping you save time, space, and money.