Security vs. usability – the debate has been around for quite a while now. Which one would you prioritize? Would you consider convenience more important than security when it comes to the identity management of consumers? What are your users more inclined to? Is there a way to find a balance between the two? Continue reading Security vs. Usability
Category: Cybersecurity Insights
Prevent Online Identity Theft with Akku
Online identity theft, simply put, is impersonation on an online platform. If someone else pretends to be you — either by stealing your credentials and logging into your account or by creating a fake account that others believe is yours – then your identity has been stolen.
There are a number of ways – data breaches, phishing, mishandled passwords, and more – through which personal data collected by an organization can be compromised, giving rise to the risk of identity theft. There are also a number of ways in which Akku, the Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution by CloudNow, can help you prevent it. Continue reading Prevent Online Identity Theft with Akku
Data Protection & Data Privacy – A difference that matters
Data protection and data privacy are so closely linked that people (and sometimes even organizations) tend to think of them as synonyms. However, understanding the difference between the two is crucial to ensuring that both protection and privacy are maintained. Continue reading Data Protection & Data Privacy – A difference that matters
Healthcare Data, HIPAA Compliance, and Akku
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has been effective in the USA since 1996.
The Act actually has five different section titles, namely Health Insurance Reform, Administrative Simplification, Tax-Related Health Provisions, Application and Enforcement of Group Health Plan Requirements, and Revenue Offsets – however, the mention of ‘HIPAA Compliance’ most often refers to compliance to the second title – Administration Simplification.
This is the most challenging aspect of the HIPAA Act, as it comes with strict regulations on protecting the data of patients in an industry that is often a major target for data breaches and malicious activity. Identity and access management across applications used in a healthcare facility, therefore, becomes critical to HIPAA compliance.
Here’s how Akku can help in ensuring data privacy and preventing both outsider and insider attacks on patient data, and, ultimately, compliance to HIPAA’s stringent regulations.
Protecting your data
- Akku strengthens security around the login process by allowing you to set up and enforce a strong password policy as well as multi-factor authentication to reinforce password-based security
- It also employs a custom salted-hash encryption methodology – a combination of salting and hashing techniques – for user credentials and data
Preventing unauthorized access
- Akku allows you to exercise tight control over which users have access to what applications and data, so that access is not available to users who may not require it
- It prevents accidental and malicious data breaches by allowing access to applications only from whitelisted network IP addresses and devices
- The system also automatically blocks suspicious access attempts at abnormal times or from unexpected locations, and also enables the set up of time-based and location-based restrictions
Ensuring privacy and accountability
- Every Akku implementation is set up independently in a separate server instance, so privacy on the cloud is ensured
- Akku provides administrators with complete visibility by maintaining detailed logs maintained for every activity taking place across the apps and in the server
Beyond HIPAA
In addition to helping your healthcare facility become HIPAA compliant, Akku also makes it easy to set up integrations across your Hospital Information System (HIS), Lab Information System (LIS), Patient Management System (PMS) and more. This, in turn, improves collaboration between various departments and enhances overall productivity.
To know more about Akku’s complete set of features and their specific benefits to your facility, contact us today!
Agent-based Cloud Security Solution? No thanks!
If your organization relies on the cloud for a majority of its operations, you may want to look closer at the type of architecture your security solution uses – whether it is agent-based or agentless. While some might say that it is irrelevant and that you should focus only on the security solution’s efficiency, we beg to differ. Picking the right kind of cloud security solution can drastically affect your organization’s day-to-day operations and how much ownership you can take over the security solution. Continue reading Agent-based Cloud Security Solution? No thanks!