Last Friday the FBI advised all US residents to reboot their routers to mitigate the threat from a Russian initiated threat called ‘VPNFilter’.
This threat is estimated to affect ~500,000 devices from multiple manufacturers. Furthermore, it has been suggested that parts of the threat can persist after reboot and that the only way to be sure that the threat is removed is to reset the device to factory defaults.
Please use this opportunity to update your routers firmware as well. In the course I teach on Performing HIPAA Risk Audits, I go over what a threat an open router is to your data security. Here are a few of the suggestions I give my clients about their routers to improve clinic security:
- Reboot your router monthly
- Check for firmware quarterly
- Do not publish SSID
- Disable wireless administration
- Enable logging
If you are not sure what any of this means, the manufacturer of your router has a website with the user manual for download. If you don’t like that, a lot of people put out good tutorials on youtube.com. Just search for your router and you will find many videos to help you configure the router yourself.
Your Chart Talk data is not at risk. The information you send is encrypted and the servers that store you patient data are never exposed directly to the internet via the Chart Talk interface. These are just more ways that Mighty Oak Technology looks out for your clinic.