If the Biggest Organizations Can’t Keep Our Data Safe, Then How Can a Small One?
By Anne Genge, CEO, Alexio Corporation
One of the greatest challenges of 21st-century is cyber-security. Billions of personal records are already being sold on the dark web. Breach fatigue has already set in, at a time when it’s more crucial than ever for every citizen of the world to be paying attention.
While people, in general, are indeed worried about having a breach, they are generally more interested in the security of their money than their information. When we look at personal health information – this is some of the most sensitive details about an individual, and yet it’s some of the least protected. In addition, it’s not like a credit card that can simply be replaced. Once your secrets are out there, there’s no ‘pull back’.
Big Organization May Equal Big Budget, But That Doesn’t Equal Secure Data
Hospitals and large organizations with big budgets, CISOs, and cyber teams still can’t keep personal health information safe, so what does that look like at – say – a dentist’s office? Healthcare practices such as dentists, physicians, and other ‘fee for service’ type clinics have a legal duty to protect health data the same as larger organizations, but they can’t. They don’t have access to the same kinds of resources. Additionally, they score very low on security awareness.
It’s not surprising, then, that when we do security risk assessments, these practices score very low; only 9% pass minimum requirements. Some healthcare providers have under-skilled IT support, some are simply paralyzed, and others don’t understand the ROI.
Automation Facilitates Efficiency, Better Protection, & Reduces Costs
‘We are all patients somewhere and we all deserve to have our sensitive personal health information kept private. This is a basic human right. A healthcare organization cannot simply ignore this because they can’t find the budget. This needs fixing, and we’re doing it.” Anne Genge, CEO, Alexio Corporation.
A solution was needed to fill this massive void. From inside VentureLab at IBM Canada emerged Alexio. Alexio started leveraging automation in every corner of its operations to solve the problem of cyber-security in healthcare practices. Today, healthcare practices across Canada benefit from world-class cyber-security and training in a subscription-based model affordable to any size practice. Even healthcare practices with just one computer can protect their patient data with the same rigor as a bank.
About the Author
Anne Genge is the CEO and co-founder of Alexio Corporation. She and her team of certified privacy and security professionals help dentists, physicians, and other healthcare providers to secure their data & systems, comply with privacy laws & regulatory college mandates. She is a firm believer that good training in cyber-security is the key to protecting not just her family and clients, but also government bodies and major corporations. To this end, she has partnered with many organizations, including the Canadian Dental Association, to produce training in order to reduce the frequency of human error resulting in a security breach.
Anne can be reached online at mailto:[email protected] and at our company website https://getalexio.com