Confidentiality and Compliance: Rules Every Business Must Follow

Every day, we as consumers put our information out there, making it more and more vulnerable to attacks. Whenever you swipe your card at a store, pay for something online, or visit a doctor’s office for a routine checkup, more of your personal information goes out into the world. With all of that personal information moving around, the best companies understand how to remain compliant with regulations in order to protect their customers’ information and keep their business afloat.

How can you navigate this vital issue? Let’s discuss common business compliance considerations, as well as specific measures you can take to ensure you are compliant with confidentiality regulations.

 

Common Business Compliance Considerations

There are a number of compliance requirements that businesses have to adhere to. For a number of companies, HIPAA and PCI are primary considerations. Understand the guidelines and learn how to get your entire team on board so that information stays secure.

 

HIPAA Compliance

Healthcare businesses have to follow HIPAA guidelines. HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and its goal is to protect healthcare information and limit fraud. In order to be HIPAA compliant, businesses have to handle protected health information (PHI) confidentially.

 

There are numerous guidelines to follow for HIPAA compliance, and it’s best to hold training sessions for staff. Mobile devices that store patient information should only be in the possession of professionals at all times. Paper files and documents have to be properly disposed of by shredding; modern companies have adopted electronic filing systems to streamline documentation. Basically, anything that contains PHI has to be kept away from the public.

 

PCI Compliance

PCI is also referred to as PCI DSS compliance, and it stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Basically, it’s a way to secure customer payment information. If you process payments via credit card, you’ll want to know about PCI compliance. While it’s not a federal law, it is the law in some states. If you don’t comply with PCI standards, you could be charged extra fees or be held liable for damages. Individual credit card companies also enact their own consequences for not following PCI.

 

If your state has PCI requirements, you’ll first need to determine your level of compliance, which is based on processing volume. You’ll then have to assess your business via a questionnaire that’s specifically geared toward your compliance level. From there, you’ll need to take the necessary steps to ensure your business is compliant, and then provide proof that your business meets the requirements.

 

Following Best Practices for Security

In order to ensure compliance, you’ll need to follow the regulations for your specific business. Overall, though, there are some security measures that a majority of businesses should consider. These tips will work toward keeping your business, employees, and customers safe.

 

Encrypt Your Website

You may have never noticed, but some websites use HTTP while others use HTTPS. HTTPS is the secure option, as it provides encryption. In the past, there were only a handful of industries that required encryption — government institutions and financial companies, for example. Today, though, so many websites collect private customer information that encryption is more important than ever. Whether you’re building a new website or already have one, make sure it’s up to speed with HTTPS encryption.

 

Improve Digital Security

Blockchain technology was popularized with Bitcoin, but today there are a number of businesses that are using it to improve their digital security. For example, the healthcare industry uses blockchain to keep electronic health records protected. The reason blockchain is so secure is because information is siloed. If one part of the blockchain is hacked (which is incredibly hard to do in the first place), the other parts of the blockchain are still secure.

 

If your website is hacked, you must change your password on your content management system, contact your website host to determine if they have any security issues, then get in touch with your website developer. They should be able to update any plugins that may be acting as security vulnerabilities, as well as remove any malicious code that may have been inserted by hackers. This can help improve your digital security and prevent future breaches. Finally, if any customer data as been put at risk, you need to disclose that information as soon as possible.

 

Password Strategies

Smart companies adopt secure password strategies. Employee passwords are highly valuable and vulnerable, and hackers often target passwords in order to break into a business’ system. Since many breaches start with password hacks, it makes sense to create strict guidelines around password creation:

 

● Every user should have multi-factor authentication set up. This creates an extra “wall” for hackers to break through.

●  Set the minimum number of required characters to eight.

●  Instead of limiting character count, allow for 64 characters or more. This allows users to create lengthy, strong passwords. Note that special characters don’t have to be a requirement — they don’t actually make the password any more secure.

● Require users to change their passwords every three months.

It’s not overkill to have several steps in your password policy. Keeping your computer systems secure is necessary for both your business safety and the privacy of your customers.

 

Shred Important Documents

Documents that contain sensitive information should be shredded when you’re finished with them in order to keep that information secure. If you don’t have the time to shred your own documents, consider a drop-off shredding service. You can have a high volume of documents shredded or have documents shredded within one business day.

 

It’s important to remember that compliance requirements are the bare minimum — the best companies go above and beyond to keep business and customer information safe. Businesses that are struggling to stay compliant and keep information protected should consider hiring managed IT services.

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