Hacking

Can’t hack it Following the front page news that the Harley Medical Group’s website got hacked and confidential patient data was stolen, John Castro from Websites for Cosmetics looks at the issue of hacking and asks, are your patients safe with you? The recent hacking of Harley Medical Group’s website, which saw 480,000 of their patients’ records obtained by hackers, has left many medical aesthetic businesses asking questions about their own web security. Should I be concerned about this? Should I take precautions? What should I be doing? I think the first thing to understand here is that Harley Medical Group is a sizeable organisation, which makes them an easy target for hackers. Corporate organisations of this size are always on the hacker hit list. This doesn’t mean you will never be targeted and with the growth in cloud computing and saving everything we own on some sort of storage space that physically doesn’t exist, hacking is inevitable. For as long as the world relies on the internet in the way it does today, this cannot be stopped. 32% of the world’s computers have some sort of virus or what is known as “malware” on them. These are bugs/viruses that have different objectives. Some want to capture your files, some your credit card info and some are just there because hackers wanted to put them there to prove credibility in the underground world of hacking. Yes, this exists. It is something we can’t stop and something that will continue to grow. Hackers are essentially the burglars of today. Proof of this has become apparent with UKCrimeStats.com claiming incidences of burglary in the UK decreased from 39,038 in January 2014 to 35,492 in February 2014. Of course I would love to stand up and claim this is down to our phenomenal police force; however, my opinion is that there is no coincidence that hacking rises as burglary declines. These offenders are moving forward with the times. Instead of spending time breaking windows and stealing your jewellery or child’s computer console, which then needs to be sold on to get the cash, criminals now pay hackers to get your information. They do this to grab your cash through fraud, credit card duplication or what is called “File Ransom”, which is essentially what the hackers wanted to do with Harley Medical Group. AAlthough the above may sound fairly scary, the good news is the UK is fourth on the list of most secure networks internationally behind Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. I still believe cloud computing and saving your files in “the cloud” is the safest way to store information. My advice would be to regularly check in on your database security and make sure you are on top of this. Using cloud storage allows you to access your information anywhere in the world. It allows you to have back up after back up of vital and important information. There are many popular ways to back up your files and client records online. These include Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud. This would be different if you use some sort of customer relationship management (CRM) or clinic management system. When choosing which CRM company to work with when buying these types of services, security of information should now be on your list of features that must be included. Just make sure the company you use backs everything up regularly and has security in place to avoid hackers at any cost. Here are three very easy tips to avoiding hackers and what you can do:

1. Scan Regularly: Scan databases for vulnerabilities

As with operating systems and web applications, some database-specific vulnerabilities can be found and destroyed only by using the right tools. Many cloud security services and software can support here. Research this and work with your CRM company to make sure they are scanning for viruses regularly with a good quality program.

2. Be Up To Date: Update, Update, Update

One of the easiest, simplest and probably most ignored ways to stay secure is to keep everything up to date. The reason behind keeping up to date is to keep current with the newest security code and applications within the software you are using. This can keep you ahead of hackers. Most hackers will simply move on when they find you’re on top of your game when it comes to version updates.

3. Password: Simple, but works!

We forget sometimes the hacker simply gets into your database by hacking through your password security. Too many people use easily guessable passwords like “123456” or even their date of birth. A strong password can be the most crucial component in stopping hackers. Be creative with your passwords. Use numbers and letters in many variations and do not have the same password for everything. This can prove to be very costly – if a hacker works it out he/she will get easy access to everything! Be sure to create strong, different, passwords for all of your accounts. This includes passwords for your online banking, email, cPanel, individual FTP accounts and your CRM / Database software.

Author Biography

John Castro, is the CEO and co-founder of Websites For Cosmetics. It is the only web agency that solely and exclusively works with the medical aesthetics and cosmetic surgery industry. www.websitesforcosmetics.com