Feeling the Security Squeeze? How to Protect PHI with Cloud-Native Printing

Breaches amongst healthcare organizations have been on the rise in the last few years, but massive cyber attacks in recent months are the cause of immediate concern. In the first half of 2024 alone, it’s been reported that HealthEquity faced a breach affecting 4.5 million in the U.S., RiteAid was subject to an attack impacting 2.2 million users, and Change Healthcare—a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group—reported the data of potentially one-third of Americans was leaked. 

All three breaches were reported to have each lost at least two or more of these sensitive Protected Health Information (PHI) data points, including:

• Full name

• Address

• Date of birth

• SSN

• Taxpayer details

• Driver license number

• Dependents’ information

• Employer and employee IDs

• Payment card information

• Medical history

• Health insurance details

In a world where sharing personal details with providers to receive care is necessary, patients must have trust that their healthcare organizations are safeguarding their highly sensitive information. Without proper cybersecurity protocols in place around PHI, companies providing healthcare services risk losing retention, their integrity, and the trust of their communities, all of which are necessary to survive in this climate. 

Vulnerable Third-Party Solutions

It’s common for multiple companies to use third-party service providers; however, when a service provider is breached, all organizations utilizing their services are implicated. 

This happened to HealthEquity, which was using HealthEC, a health management solution company. HealthEC was the initial target of the breach, which led to the implication of 4.5 million HealthEquity users’ data. 

Unprotected Log-in Processes

If a company only has one authentication precaution in place for users, its systems are extremely vulnerable and a likely target for hackers. However, using multi-function authentication (MFA) precautions can make you 99% less likely to be hacked. 

MFA requires a user to verify their identity by using more than one authentication method, such as a badge swipe, PIN, QR code, or password verification, to access guarded information. This essentially adds multiple hoops for a hacker to jump through to gain information. These authentication methods are often used to log in to patient or provider portals, request subscriptions, schedule appointments, or access a repository of data. 

In the case of the pharmacy chain RiteAid’s ransomware attack, a hacker simply used an employee’s log-in credentials and gained access to the businesses’ systems.

For Change Healthcare, Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealth Group Andrew Witty explicitly revealed that the attack happened because UnitedHealth was not using multi-factor authentication, regardless of it being an industry standard. 

Print environments have historically been a vulnerable attack surface (remember PrintNightmare?) for hackers to access company and PHI data. By implementing a print management solution like PrinterLogic, you can protect your network using these security features: 

Zero Trust Printing: Reduce attack surfaces by eliminating old infrastructure like print servers.

Secure Release Printing: Protect sensitive documents using MFA for print job retrieval.

Off-Network Printing: Allow remote employees and contractors to print on the go while maintaining security.

IdP Integrations: Securely use leading third-party Identity Providers to store and manage passwords and other authentication data.

Rules & Routing: Configure criteria that prevent unauthorized users from printing documents with specific keywords and patient information.