Cyber Security Tips to Protect Your Care Home and Residents’ Data

Cyber Security Tips to Protect Your Care Home and Residents’ Data

Cyber Security Tips to Protect Your Care Home and Residents’ Data

Making the move from paper-based record-keeping to a digital care management system has a plethora of benefits for busy care home managers and their staff. These include more streamlined admin, less time needed for laborious manual tasks and easier accessing, sharing and updating of key information. However, the move also comes with challenges, not least the introduction of cyber risks into the data management process.

One effective way to mitigate against this threat is to have robust cyber security protocols in place. Make sure you conduct regular audits and checks on all IT and online tools and work to ensure that personal and other sensitive data is stored securely and security measures are not open to being compromised. Here are some area to consider.

Password protection

Your password is one of the strongest ways to protect data; however, it can be very easy to choose something that could leave you vulnerable to cyber breaches. Never pick anything that is too obvious, such as your partner, children’s or best fronds names, pet names, birth places or favourite sports teams. Other weak choices include easily guessable number combinations like 12345 or 2468, the word ‘Password’ or the phrase ‘letmein’.

Follow the instructions when setting a password – you will often be asked for a combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Change your password frequently, have different passwords for separate logins and never, ever write it down or tell anyone else. Finally, turn on two-step verification wherever possible to add an extra layer of protection when signing in.

Stay on top of updates and back-ups

In a busy care management job, it is all too tempting to put off installing security updates to your IT, or backing up your data securely at the end of each day. However, these tasks are crucial to keep your data secure and prevent loss, corruption or theft of vital information and IT systems. Having back-ups also allows you to refer back to previous versions of files if you need to check updates or compare changes you have made. Don’t forget to install and back up appropriate virus protection and anti-malware software.

Cyber criminals are working out new ways to hack into systems all the time, so updating your apps and software to the latest versions is your best chance of staying ahead of the game and gaining access to the newest and most protected systems and tools. Your IT should alert you to when it is time to update a program or app, but it also pays to keep an eye on any updates coming out in addition to relying on your computer or smart device to tell you about them.

Stay alert and suspicious

Never click on any links in emails, especially if you do not recognise the sender. Likewise, do not reveal any passwords or sensitive information over the phone unless you have emailed or phoned the organisation yourself and know for sure that you are talking to the correct person. If you have any doubts about an email or phone call, close the email or hang up the phone and contact the organisation they are pertaining to be from separately. Bone fide organisations – Care Vision included – will always be happy to verify that the contact has come from them if it is genuine and will be grateful for the information if their details are being used as part of a scam.

Avoid opening sensitive emails or logging onto confidential systems when you are in danger of being overlooked, e.g. in a busy café or on public transport. A quick look around you to ascertain that no-one is peeking over your shoulder will help keep your data safe while you are on the move. Cover your screen with your hand if you are worried, or install a privacy screen.

Limit access and be careful sharing data

Finally, while systems such as Care Vision make sharing date easy and quick to achieve, think carefully about who it is that is receiving the privileged information. Do they really need to have access to the information, and do they know how to handle it carefully and professionally once it is in their possession? Make sure that anyone who leaves your organisation can no longer access sensitive information and change passwords promptly to avoid unauthorised attempts to long in.

Do not keep data for longer than you need to – bear in mind the legal obligations around protecting people’s identity and personal details of the GDPR Act – and dispose of old or obsolete devices carefully to ensure any data left on them cannot be extracted by someone else.