Protect Your Practice by Robert Niles

A dentist’s guide to cybersecurity resilience

by Robert Niles

• Average health care data breaches cost $9.77 million.
• Ransomware demands average $5.7 million, with actual payments averaging $900,000.
• Smaller practices can still face significant penalties. One dental group was recently fined $350,000.

• Remove unused software and applications.
• Create and maintain a software inventory.
• Disable unnecessary remote access.
• Update systems promptly and scan for unauthorized software.

• Use MFA and enterprise-grade VPNs.
• Monitor and log access attempts.

• Segment your network, use firewalls, and secure Wi-Fi with encryption.
• Isolate guest networks and review logs regularly.

• Conduct annual training, phishing simulations, and monthly security tips.
• Provide role-specific security education.

• Encourage reporting, share examples, and establish clear incident procedures.

• Document policies, create response and continuity plans, and regularly update protocols.

• Encrypt all devices and data transfers. Perform regular encryption audits.

• Use the 3-2-1 rule (three copies, two media types, one offsite).
• Run regular backup tests and keep snapshots for rollback.

• Classify data, define retention/disposal policies, and perform security audits.

• Require BAAs, access control, and service level agreements.
• Monitor vendor security practices.

• Limit access, monitor activities, maintain inventories and perform assessments.

Robert Niles is the information security officer at Productive Dentist Academy and a certified information systems security professional (CISSP). He can be reached at robert@productivedentist.com.