Security Risk Analysis. Protected Health Information Security Risks

Protected Health Information (PHI) Security Risks
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Protected Health Information (PHI) Security Risks
In this digital age, information has become a crucial asset in most organizations. It is essential to ensure that the information is protected at all times, especially, sensitive data in organizations. Different risks pose a threat to Protected Health Information in healthcare organizations. Concerns over the security and privacy of information in healthcare organizations fall under two categories. These are the threat of inappropriate release of the data from organizations, and issues of a systematic flow of the information throughout the organization and industry. This paper discusses in details the three main internal and external risks that pose a threat to Private Health Information (PHI) data within the organization.
Main Risks
The first internal risk is increased access and use of automated technologies. This is the case because most of the systems in the healthcare organization are automated, which broadens the access to private information within the entity. With this comes the threat of unauthorized access to private information. At the same time, there is the threat of individuals with authorized access sharing information either voluntarily or unintentionally. It is true that the electronic exchange of information within the healthcare organization increases the convenience and efficiency with which information is shared in healthcare facilities. However, the sharing of information via internet based systems increases data risk and liability. Increased exchange of information via electronic channels within the healthcare organization increases the risk of private information leaking out (Merrill, 2011). However, for organizations to achieve their goals, it is essential to ensure that there is an effective exchange of information between sectors. This is even though the broader exchange is an internal risks factor for private healthcare information. It is the case because the broader exchange in most instances leads to a further distribution of privacy and security risks, which increases the likelihood of data breaches.
A second risk that has increased the threat to private healthcare information data is the risk of the gaps that exist in the legislation. Some of the laws that seek to promote proper communication within healthcare organizations have led to situations where there are gaps that enable data breaches. Some of the rules that guide the sharing of private data do not specify how best to prevent data breaches. This has led to a situation where the business is supposed to follow some of the legislation in regards to data protection and sharing, but with an interrupted secure exchange of PHI (Appari & Johnson, 2010). This is especially the case where a business has associates; it is never clear whether they should handle PHI or not. In the case of audits, there is no guarantee that the auditors who access private information will not share with third parties, yet, some audits are mandatory for the organization. In this regard, laws that require the firm to share certain pieces of information can be considered a significant risk factor that increases the threat of PHI dat...