Improving Business Security

After our company headquarters was robbed for the fifth time, I decided we needed to do a little better at bolstering security. Instead of relying on a few measly cameras and a security guard that was distracted most of the time, we installed a state-of-the-art security system and focused on eliminating inherent security threats. It took a lot of work, but after a few weeks we could tell that our efforts were really helping. We were able to thwart a potential robbery, which made me feel better about the investment. Check out this blog for more ideas on improving your business security.

Tips For De-Identifying Private Health Information

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If you are the manager of a hospital, then you are going to want to be absolutely sure that you are able to keep the data of all of your patients safe. Their health information is confidential to only them and the doctors that they are willing to share it with. One main way to keep private health information private is to make sure that you de-identify it. This involves removing any identifying features of the private health information before transmitting it over a channel that is potentially insecure. Here are some tips for de-identifying private health information.

1. Meet All the Guidelines of the Expert Determination Method

The first of the two methods of de-identifying data is to have an expert create a way to de-identify data by applying an algorithm that strips the data of all of its identifying factors. In order to properly utilize this method, you will need to satisfy these three requirements.

a) The expert must be recognized in the fields of statistics or computer science as competent in being able to create an apply the appropriate algorithm for rending data so that it is no longer identifiable. An appropriate method to determine if someone is truly competent is to compare work history with regards to whether a person has done such a task before, and to cross-check it with whether or not a person has a degree in the relevant field.

b) The expert must be able to prove that the risk of a person being identifiable after the algorithm has been applied is very small. This means that the expert has to be able to show that his or her methods removed so much identifying information that only a person who knew one of the patients from which the data was taken would be able to determine the identity of the person that the data belonged to.

c) The expert must document his or her proof so that other experts in the field can try to duplicate his or her methods.

2. Meet All the Guidelines of the Safe Harbor Method

The second method that you could use to remove the identity of the person to whom the data belongs is to use the safe harbor method. This is when a strict, 18-point checklist of identifying characteristics of data are removed systematically. This checklist can be found here.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in de-identification services like Info Incognito.

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9 May 2016