ment.
On the flip side, employees must be careful about sending emails as
well — especially those containing sensitive patient information,
which Ms. Derrico says you should encrypt. Encryption essentially
makes the message unreadable to anyone who doesn't have a private
key to access it.
How strong are your passwords?
Weak passwords make it easier for hackers to break into your system.
Here are some tips to strengthen your passwords.
Change your password every 3 months. That seems frequent, but it's
one of the best ways to safeguard against a data breach, says Ms.
Derrico. The more obscure you make your password, the better. Ms.
Derrico suggests replacing some letters in the password with similar-
looking numbers; picking a date that's not a birthday to include in the
word; adding symbols instead of just numbers and letters; and alter-
nating between capital and lowercase letters. Langate suggests avoid-
ing words that can be found in the dictionary and creating long pass-
words with 10 or more distinct characters.
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 4 5
More than one-third (36%)
of the 187 surgical leaders
we surveyed are "extremely"
or "very" concerned about
a cyberattack at their
facility?
How Concerned Are
You About a Cyberattack?
extremely 19%
very 17%
moderately 30%
slightly 24%
not at all 10%
Are You Worried About Hackers?
SOURCE: Outpatient Surgery Magazine InstaPoll, October 2017
InstaPoll
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