Data breaches in the healthcare sector were up in 2018 compared to the previous year. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, health-related breaches accounted for 29.3% of all compromises. In all, there were 363 healthcare data breaches in the US resulting in over 9 million records lost.

Health organizations face unique challenges when complying with HIPAA requirements, especially Security, Privacy, and Breach Notification Rules. Healthcare practices and networks are busy, vary in size and resources, and are frequent data breach targets. These organizations need a resource that will help them understand and implement security measures they must take to keep protected health information (PHI) safe.

SecurityMetrics released their 2019 Guide to HIPAA compliance to help health organizations gain a foundational knowledge of HIPAA, organize their compliance efforts, train employees, and prevent data breaches. The updated 2019 guide includes new insights from HIPAA security analysts and updated survey data from healthcare organizations. The guide simplifies important elements from the HIPAA Security, Breach Notification, and Privacy Rules, including:

• Incident response plans
• PHI encryption
• Business associate agreements
• Mobile device security
• HIPAA-compliant emails
• Remote access
• Vulnerability scanning
• Penetration testing

SecurityMetrics CEO Brad Caldwell says, "The number of cyber attacks on the healthcare sector continues to increase. We update and release our free HIPAA guide each year to help all sizes of organizations in the healthcare sector strengthen and adapt their cyber defense tactics to keep up with insidious hacker threats."

Organizations and individuals who would like a copy of the SecurityMetrics 2019 Guide to HIPAA Compliance can download a PDF copy for free. Download the 2019 SecurityMetrics Guide to HIPAA Compliance here.

To learn more about SecurityMetrics or HIPAA, contact 801-705-5621, email consulting@securitymetrics.com, or visit www.securitymetrics.com/hipaa.