Nt1330 Unit 9 Final Project
Purpose of my Project
Digital medical records is a great tool in the medical industry, but what is even more exciting in the medical industry is that most of X-ray equipment is digital , producing results instantly. These results can be attached to the digital medical records, where doctors can access it with a click of a button. With so much personal information stored digitally on servers, it is very important to have a secure network in place. A majority of large medical groups have already invested in Network Security to meet the HIPPA standards and beyond. However, the small imaging offices that I’m familiar with have poor Network Security in place or no Network Security at all. “Mobile devices are ubiquitous in today's society, and the number and types of devices used by physicians, nurses, …show more content…
clinicians, specialists, administrators and staff – as well as patients and visitors – is growing at healthcare organizations across the country. Providing anywhere/anytime network access is essential, particularly when instant communication is required to ensure quality patient care. But these devices are launched daily with upgraded versions of operating systems that are ripe for infection” (healthcareitnews.com). This leaves sensitive material vulnerable.
Hypothesis
I work on digital mammography equipment that is installed in small, remote offices that mostly have low security settings on their network.
Anyone with a laptop or tablet could access the network and with only few basic network utilities could access all the servers and all the patient information. Most of these facilities are not implementing any Network Security because of the cost associated with it. “Most healthcare organizations nationwide, some 61 percent to be exact, reported a security related incident in the form of security breach, data loss or unplanned downtime at least once this past year, according to a new health IT report by MeriTalk, a public-private organization working to improve government information technology. These security events cost U.S. hospitals an estimated $1.6 billion each year. Breaking it down by incident, hospitals should expect to hand over on average $810,000 per security breach, which occurs at nearly one in five healthcare organizations nationwide” (healthcareitnews.com). I hope that with this project I can make clear the benefits of securing the network and the steps we need to take to set up and secure the
network.
Task of Action
The first course of action would be to identify how many systems will be on the network and what kind of infrastructure should be implemented. Next, I will provide the user with the network vulnerabilities, and solution to the problem. Then we would have to confirm the compatibility between the medical equipment and the network to maximize the effectiveness. The last thing is to explain that networks are never 100% secure and what action they need to take if they encounter a network breach.
Audience
The intended audience are small radiology offices that use digital X-Ray equipment and digital patient record systems, IT personal that works in the digital X-ray industry, and anyone who has a digital medical record.
Proposal Research and Discussion
In my current research, I have found that despite HIPPA regulations, hospitals, imaging centers, and the like have failed at securing our most private information. With over half of the medical facilities in the US reporting security breaches there is lots of room for improvement. Referencing Health Care IT News, “Despite these report findings, only a moderate number of healthcare organizations indicated they are taking the necessary steps to prepare and prevent security events in the future. For instance, only 42 percent said they were moving forward with encryption initiatives, and 44 percent said they were getting single sign-on and authentication for Web-based applications and portals.”
Reference Page
Healthcare IT News (2015) Healthcare’s slack security costs $1.6B retrieved from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/healthcares-slack-security-costs-16b
Healthcare IT News (2015) Top 5 security threats in healthcare Retrived from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/top-5-security-threats-healthcare?single-page=true
Norton Security (2015) Norton Small Buisness Edition retrieved from: http://us.norton.com/small-business/
This source is going to be used to find out which software to use to protect the network.
Barracuda Security Suite (2015) Features retrieved from: https://www.barracuda.com/products/securitysuite/features#SUB
This source is going to be used to explain what hardware needs to be use to protect the network.
Digital medical records is a great tool in the medical industry, but what is even more exciting in the medical industry is that most of X-ray equipment is digital , producing results instantly. These results can be attached to the digital medical records, where doctors can access it with a click of a button. With so much personal information stored digitally on servers, it is very important to have a secure network in place. A majority of large medical groups have already invested in Network Security to meet the HIPPA standards and beyond. However, the small imaging offices that I’m familiar with have poor Network Security in place or no Network Security at all. “Mobile devices are ubiquitous in today's society, and the number and types of devices used by physicians, nurses, …show more content…
clinicians, specialists, administrators and staff – as well as patients and visitors – is growing at healthcare organizations across the country. Providing anywhere/anytime network access is essential, particularly when instant communication is required to ensure quality patient care. But these devices are launched daily with upgraded versions of operating systems that are ripe for infection” (healthcareitnews.com). This leaves sensitive material vulnerable.
Hypothesis
I work on digital mammography equipment that is installed in small, remote offices that mostly have low security settings on their network.
Anyone with a laptop or tablet could access the network and with only few basic network utilities could access all the servers and all the patient information. Most of these facilities are not implementing any Network Security because of the cost associated with it. “Most healthcare organizations nationwide, some 61 percent to be exact, reported a security related incident in the form of security breach, data loss or unplanned downtime at least once this past year, according to a new health IT report by MeriTalk, a public-private organization working to improve government information technology. These security events cost U.S. hospitals an estimated $1.6 billion each year. Breaking it down by incident, hospitals should expect to hand over on average $810,000 per security breach, which occurs at nearly one in five healthcare organizations nationwide” (healthcareitnews.com). I hope that with this project I can make clear the benefits of securing the network and the steps we need to take to set up and secure the
network.
Task of Action
The first course of action would be to identify how many systems will be on the network and what kind of infrastructure should be implemented. Next, I will provide the user with the network vulnerabilities, and solution to the problem. Then we would have to confirm the compatibility between the medical equipment and the network to maximize the effectiveness. The last thing is to explain that networks are never 100% secure and what action they need to take if they encounter a network breach.
Audience
The intended audience are small radiology offices that use digital X-Ray equipment and digital patient record systems, IT personal that works in the digital X-ray industry, and anyone who has a digital medical record.
Proposal Research and Discussion
In my current research, I have found that despite HIPPA regulations, hospitals, imaging centers, and the like have failed at securing our most private information. With over half of the medical facilities in the US reporting security breaches there is lots of room for improvement. Referencing Health Care IT News, “Despite these report findings, only a moderate number of healthcare organizations indicated they are taking the necessary steps to prepare and prevent security events in the future. For instance, only 42 percent said they were moving forward with encryption initiatives, and 44 percent said they were getting single sign-on and authentication for Web-based applications and portals.”
Reference Page
Healthcare IT News (2015) Healthcare’s slack security costs $1.6B retrieved from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/healthcares-slack-security-costs-16b
Healthcare IT News (2015) Top 5 security threats in healthcare Retrived from: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/top-5-security-threats-healthcare?single-page=true
Norton Security (2015) Norton Small Buisness Edition retrieved from: http://us.norton.com/small-business/
This source is going to be used to find out which software to use to protect the network.
Barracuda Security Suite (2015) Features retrieved from: https://www.barracuda.com/products/securitysuite/features#SUB
This source is going to be used to explain what hardware needs to be use to protect the network.