Anne Genge, CEO and Co-founder of Healthcare Compliance Network Inc., returns to Oasis Discussions to speak with Dr. Suham Alexander about email security.
- While email is fast, easy and convenient to use, it can expose the practice to various threats including ransomware, malware, spyware and can be easily hacked without appropriate preventive measures. Threats can often be mitigated through the use of emails associated with a specific domain name, such as drsmith@ABCdental.com rather than “free-mail” accounts with hotmail, gmail or yahoo. Similarly, robust business grade anti-virus protection is a must to protect the practice from incoming threats, usually from email.
- In addition, using a hosted exchange platform, such as Microsoft Exchange, allows practitioners and team members to archive emails for a specified time period. So, if an email is inadvertently or deliberately deleted, it can be retrieved as required for forensic purposes.
- In order to protect patient and practice confidentiality, encryption software should be employed when transmitting sensitive information ranging from confidential financial to patient records. Encryption software is easy to use and fairly inexpensive nowadays.
- Offices should consider outlining office email policies for the team to adhere to and explain the rationale for the policies’ existence.
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