Another massive retailer has been hacked, and information on millions of credit cards appears to have been stolen. Read the story at USA Today. This breach follows 2013’s attack on Target, which industry experts suggest could have easily been prevented.

The good news is that your organization isn’t nearly as tempting for hackers as big fish like Home Depot and Target. The bad news is that you probably don’t have the internal IT security teams of these corporations, and you’re much less likely to bounce back from a devastating security breach.

If you accept credit and debit cards for payment, you are required to be PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant as part of your merchant agreement. You can find more information on PCI compliance at the PCI Security Standards Council web site.

However, if you don’t feel confident in your technical ability to reach and maintain compliance, be sure to get qualified IT security assistance. It’s like your mother always said: an ounce of prevention is worth a million stolen credit cards.

Take a moment to read the list of mistakes below. If you haven’t yet conducted your HIPAA assessment, contact ClearLink for a fast, cost-effective assessment and remediation plan to stay compliant and avoid the fines.

The deadline for assessing HIPAA compliance is approaching fast. With violations of HIPAA security standards costing up to $50,000 per infraction, it’s time to make sure your organization and all Business Associates are compliant.

Mistake #1: Using Unsupported Operating Systems

Are any of your organization’s PCs still running Windows XP? If so, you could be at risk for significant security breaches. Microsoft has recently dropped support for the Windows XP operating system, giving potential hackers easier access to your data. An unsupported operating system means the software provider has stopped patching security vulnerabilities. To remain compliant, you might have to upgrade all PCs on your network to a supported operating system.
How at-risk is your organization? read more…