Have you encrypted the hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD) on every laptop in your organization? If your business or nonprofit organization handles Protected Health Information (PHI), you should encrypt every laptop as soon as possible! Laptops that store PHI may be one of the greatest vulnerabilities in any organization. Just one stolen laptop can cost millions of dollars in legal fees and fines. Last week, two major major settlements were announced that could have been prevented with proper laptop encryption. North Memorial Health Care of Minnesota agreed to pay $1.55 million, and Feinstein Institute for Medical Research agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle charges that they potentially violated the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. I will summarize both cases and explain the simple steps that you can take to protect your organization.
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