Information Security Memo Week 3

Lauren Kenst

Seton Hill University

SBU 331 Healthcare Information Systems

January 30, 2022

 Memo

Healthcare information systems (HIS) play a huge role in healthcare organizations all

over the world today. They enable doctors to communicate with each other as well as with their

patients. Without this kind of technology, healthcare might not be the booming industry that it is

today. A huge part of HIS is keeping patient information safe and secure. The way to carry out

the daunting task of HIS security is to keep patient information safe and mitigate cybersecurity

threats.

Data security is a huge part of HIS. How many times have we heard news stories where

patient information has been compromised due to a ransomware attack on the hospital system?

All kinds of information is stored within these systems such as billing information, electronic

health records, etc (Masrom, 2015). When information like this is exposed, patients are

vulnerable to all kinds of financial attacks.

To combat these security breaches, experts “recommend the need to implement an

intrusion protection system and constantly update the firewall and antivirus” (Kabelo, 2021).

Keeping the software up to date ensures that everything works as it should and there is no new

hacker technology that can breach it.

Training administrators and hospital leaders on the use of HIS can be helpful in

mitigating security risks (Mehraeen, 2016). This can ensure that in the absence of IT staff,

administrators can act on the situation and monitor.

 References

Kabelo Given Chuma & Mpho Ngoepe (2021) Security of electronic personal health information

in a public hospital in South Africa, Information Security Journal: A Global

Perspective, DOI: 10.1080/19393555.2021.1893410

Masrom, Maslin and Rahimly, Ailar (2015) "Overview of Data Security Issues in Hospital

Information Systems," Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems:

Vol. 7 : Iss. 4 , Article 5.

Mehraeen, E., Ayatollahi, H., & Ahmadi, M. (2016). Health Information Security in Hospitals:

the Application of Security Safeguards. Acta informatica medica : AIM : journal of the

Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia & Herzegovina : casopis Drustva za

medicinsku informatiku BiH, 24(1), 47–50. https://doi.org/10.5455/aim.2016.24.47-50