SIEM systems monitor compliance, combat patient data security threats

SearchHealthIT – by Emily Huizenga, Editorial Assistant

HIPAA mandates and meaningful use audits tighten up the security rules that healthcare providers must follow. At the same time, a fledgling mHealth landscape heightens the risk of data breaches. All the while, next-generation threats to the security of patient data are beginning to emerge, forcing healthcare CIOs to take a longer, harder look at upgrading patient data security.

Healthcare organizations can recognize and potentially evade patient data security threats by using gap analysis and security information and event management (SIEM) software, as well as log management, said three security leaders during a recent eiQnetworks-hosted webinar, “Unified Situational Awareness for Compliant and Secure Healthcare.”

“Data security is something I don’t think you can ever check the box for,” said Ken Beasley, director of information security and information security officer at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. “It’s always going to be changing. It’s something you’ll always have to watch.”

Beasley said that after he and his team saw a few cost assessments from initial HIPAA audits reported in the news — including fines that ranged from $100 to $1.5 million — they immediately hired a security risk analysis consultant, a step most practices are apt to begin with.

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