Healthcare Security Survey
9 December, 2009
The 2009 HIMSS Security Survey was recently published and we want to share some key IT security findings from the healthcare industry. The respondents consisted of primarily CIOs and CSOs of US hospitals and HCO corporate offices.
- Three-quarters of organizations that did conduct risk assessments found patient data at risk due to inadequate security controls, policies and processes.
- Risk assessments is the primary tool used for monitoring and measuring security controls in healthcare IT.
- The respondents scored themselves a modest 4 out of 7 for maturity of the security environment, on average on a 1-7 scale.
- Results relating to the HITECH act (privacy/security):
- Only 50% have a plan to respond to a security breach.
- Only 67% utilize encryption (which can provide a “safe harbor” from breach notification)
- E-mail encryption is however on top of the list for planned future installations.
Read more in the full report: http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIMSS2009SecuritySurveyReport.pdf