Monday, May 16, 2022

Keeping Personal and Practice Data Safe in the Wake of the American Dental Association Hack

 A very short post today because the real story is in the link.

A couple of weeks ago, the American Dental Association had their network compromised by cyber criminals.  The hack took the ADA offline for several days and caused a major disruption to not only ADA operations but also the operations of several state dental associations as well.

Even as I type this, their systems are still not back 100%.  This is a big deal and unfortunately it is a situation. that most individuals read or about or experience far too frequently.  It has almost gotten to the point where these situations happen so frequently that the public has become desensitized to them.  We think, 'Oh another data security incident.  Pass the salt." and we carry on our lives.

That's unfortunate, but it is also human nature.  What is *news* is what is not common.  Plane crashes are a big story because they are rare.  If there was 24 hour coverage of every auto fatality, that all the news we would hear, unfortunately.

To help doctors put this event in perspective and also to help them to be prepared, I turned to my friend Steve White.  He is the Senior Partner and Vice President of the cyber security firm DDS Rescue and also someone I've come to have a friendship with where we, once again unfortunately, have bonded over our interest in data security.

Steve's firm is one of my major vendors that helps with my cybersecurity, so when  he speaks, I listen.  I really feel that any doctor, or any individual, who wants to be more secure should listen to him as well.  He was kind enough to answer some questions for me which we've posted to Dental Products Report online.  

Also, if you'd like more info on the ADA incident, after reading the interview on DPR, simply scroll down the page for an article by my buddy Stan Goff dealing with this unfortunate situation.

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