October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In recognition of this month, I will be posting 1 blog post per day on Cybersecurity. Today I will focus on Security Updates for web browsers.
Each of us uses a web browser to access the internet. Among the most widely used are Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari. There are also may other browsers available to be used to surf the net. As a medical professional you are responsible to make sure your browser is not the source of a HIPAA Security Breach in your office.
No matter which web browser you use, when you surf the internet, you are visiting web sites. But that is not how it works. When you view a website, the website is visiting you. The website sends text, images, applications, scripts and other items to your computer. The browser receives this information and displays the web site on your screen. You then interact with your browser and if you click on something in the website. Your browser may send a request across the internet for more content, this can be a request to download a program, view a different page on the internet or many other things.
Malicious web sites may insert programs into your browser that will run on your computer and cause you problems. These malicious web sites are able to do this when they find a security hole in your browser.
The companies that build the browsers are doing their best to avoid these security holes and fix any that are found. When a company finds a security hold in a browser, they release a fix and you need to update your browser with that fix to protect your computer. For example Google just released an update to Chrome to fix 4 security holes. (see : https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2021/09/stable-channel-update-for-desktop_30.html )
When a browser released a security fix, there is always an announcement, and that announcement includes details on what was fixed. We are notified to update our browser and just as important the hacker community is notified that the security hold exists in the software. That means every hacker who did not already know about the security hole now knows about it.
The sad truth is most of us to not pay attention to these security announcements and we do not update our browsers. Hackers know this and they immediately start working on developing viruses and other malicious programs that can take advantage of these security holes and steal our information or put ransomware on our computers. This is why it is very important to subscribe to updates from your software developers. If you do not keep your computers and programs up to date you are at a very high risk of a HIPAA Security Breach.
You can also subscribe to the TLD Systems Newsletter where we publish many of the security announcements that you need to know about in order to protect your computers, your information, and the information you have about your patients. To subscribe to our newsletter, click HERE
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