Outpatient Facility Coding Alert

Question: What is “social engineering” and how can I protect myself from any potential HIPAA breach that may result out of it?

Utah Subscriber

Answer: Using the tactics of social engineering, unauthorized people may try to extract secure information from you or one of your staff members. These unauthorized people will send you an email, appearing to come from a legitimate party to elicit information. If you happen to fall into their trap unassumingly, you may end up compromising the security of your systems or accounts.

To put it simply, social engineering cons a person into revealing secure information such as login, customer, patient, or corporate data.

Criminals are evolving and getting better with the use of new technology. You will need to proactively educate your staff to look out for emails that may contain tricks to access personal or professional information.

 

 

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