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Adam Hawks

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Is Cost Holding You Back?

Managing expenses is one of the core tasks of any business owner or manager. Nothing is free, so if you want to keep the lights on and your office staffed, you need to know what’s coming in and what you’re paying out.

But to run operations profitably, you might find yourself having to prioritize your expenses. When you do that, what gets bumped up-front and what gets pushed to the back? A mistake that many businesses — especially medical offices — make is to give IT a lower priority.

In this blog, using medical offices as our example, we’ll discuss why most offices tend to place too low of a priority on their IT budget and what can happen as a consequence if they’re not careful.

Why Such a Low Priority?

Many types of businesses think nothing of dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on diagnostic machines or specialty equipment, yet they drag their feet when it comes to upgrading outdated computer terminals. In all honesty, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise as CEO’s often have an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. After all, how often have you been to a doctor’s office and have seen a scale that looked like it was manufactured during the Nixon administration?

While imaging systems and other medical equipment offer tangible benefits to physicians when caring for their patients, some feel that if the computer system can still do what it’s supposed to be doing, then what’s the point of upgrading or expanding? Additionally, and we’re just being frank here, new medical equipment can often mean more money in the pocket of the practice, whereas giving the reception desk updated terminals doesn’t seem to offer any real profit.

That being said, there are other reasons for not wanting to upgrade other than just dollars and cents. For instance, finding good hardware or software can be difficult as everything used needs to be HIPPA compliant — something that not every system can claim. As a result, upgrading can be a nightmare, especially when the current system that’s being used was installed decades ago.

The High Cost of Low Budgets

With many types of investments, including IT purchases, the less you pay upfront, the more you’ll pay in the future. In the example mentioned above of the old scale, as long as it’s accurate, it doesn’t matter how old it is since it does its job. But if you’re running older computer systems that don’t have modern safety protocols, for example, your system is exceptionally vulnerable to attacks.

While hackers wanting to steal credit card numbers is no surprise, what is surprising is the apparent value of medical records being sold inside the dark web. In last May alone, there were 28 reports of hacks stealing more than 500 records from medical systems nationwide. HHS’ Office for Civil Rights reports a 59% year-over-year increase in these sorts of attacks, with much of it blamed on outdated systems and hardware. Not only is it difficult for the patients whose privacy has been violated, but it also opens up these healthcare providers to a sea of liability.

In addition to security risks, you may also face the risk of being left behind. Patients are now treated at a higher level of service than ever before. For instance, who ten years ago could have ever dreamt of a world where you could receive your test results at the same time your doctor does, on your phone? These and many other services can be provided via patient portals, which are a major example of how the future is now alive in healthcare. A significant emphasis has been made making patients and doctors partners and the only way to do this is by easy access to information.

Lastly, modern IT just makes everything move faster. Whether it be billing, insurance claims, scheduling, or any other aspect of running a medical facility, there’s no doubt that the fewer resources that are dedicated to non-medical tasks, the better and faster your patients can be cared for.

Modern Solutions to Modern Challenges

Even with all these benefits made clear, the challenge is still in the acquisition, implementation, and upkeep of a modern IT solution that will work best for your operation. With so many options at so many price levels, it can be a major undertaking to know what will work best for you.

That’s where a quality Managed Service Provider comes into play. MSPs work well with healthcare organizations since we do all the IT work for you, allowing you to get back to taking care of your patients. We go over what you currently have and work within your needs and budget to see what will make your office run at top efficiency.

By using our experience and know-how, we cure your issues so you can cure the rest of the community.

Compliance Alphabet Soup

Compliance Alphabet Soup

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Compliance Alphabet Soup

No matter what industry you’re in, compliance acronyms are abundant, filling your days with both confusion and regulation. We call it the compliance alphabet soup. It’s time to make a little bit more sense of all those acronyms and what they likely mean for your business.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): While this regulation only applies to the European Union and information leaving the EU, we are seeing its effects state-side because it requires businesses that interact with EU citizens to comply, regardless of location. The goal of GDPR is to create greater data privacy and protect from breaches. If there is even the slightest likelihood that someone from the EU will be visiting your site or interacting with you online, make sure that you comply with GDPR regulations. We’ll cover GDPR in greater detail in our next blog.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996): While this law has been on the books since 1996, many medical practices are still not HIPAA compliant and believe that they are too small to be touched. Even if you aren’t directly in the medical industry, pay attention! Beyond the practices themselves, any organization that works with a medical practice has responsibility in HIPAA compliance through associate agreements. These agreements particularly apply to IT companies, law practices, accounting firms, and others that might have access to patient data in any way. Bottom line, all patient data must be protected, encrypted, and safe. You also need to have a specific HIPAA-compliance plan, breach response plans, and data recovery methodology. HIPAA has gained notoriety with larger scale medical breaches in recent years, in addition to larger fines levied for HIPAA breaches. The largest fine currently on record is $16 million. Small companies are also being hit with violations costing about $1.5 million apiece.

HITECH (Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act): HITECH entered the picture in 2009 and brought teeth to HIPAA violations. This regulation specifically covers the electronic transmission of health information. In its best form, it’s meant to improve patient care through better doctor coordination, better sharing of information, and strong data security of electronic health records. In practice, all those privacy forms that you sign whenever you go to the doctor really do have an important purpose.

I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification): This is the form that new hires must fill out within three days of employment to verify that they are eligible to work within the US. While this piece of paper may get lost among the sea of new hire paperwork, it should never be overlooked. Even if you’ve been correctly employing the I-9 form for years, you may want to go back and check for form updates. Some updates will have no impact; but to be truly in compliance, you’ll sometimes need to go back and have every employee update their I-9 information and verification documents.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard): Do you collect credit card information within your business? Any payment data collected and stored must be PCI compliant. To ensure compliance:

  • Employ strong security standards, like firewalls, anti-virus protection, and regular updates that protect your network as a whole
  • Encrypt all credit card information transmitted across open networks
  • Maintain strong data access controls to ensure that rogue people don’t gain access to your information

These are just a few of the compliance acronyms you may encounter in your daily work. Don’t get lost in the compliance alphabet soup. A quality IT firm can help you comply with the vast majority of these and will be able to put a clear plan of action in place to increase your cybersecurity footprint.

Stop Cybercrime

Down the Pipeline

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Just as it seemed we might be seeing clear skies ahead in terms of the pandemic, another dark cloud began to rise on the horizon. The Colonial Pipeline breach hit the news and many people began to panic. We were all too familiar with the uncertainty of the future and last year’s toilet paper rush was replaced with people filling gasoline in plastic containers of all sorts and sizes.

Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly the level of chaos that we saw in March of 2020, but it did bring a lot of things to the surface for people, especially if you’re in the cybersecurity industry. One thing that we discuss with our clients is how this type of breach isn’t industry-specific. It’s important that the humans of the world (in other words, all of us) realize that a breach on a fuel pipeline doesn’t mean that gasoline prices will soar and affect their summer road trip plans (which it might) – it could possibly mean much more in many different ways that aren’t thought of initially.

How so?

With the Colonial Pipeline ransomware incident, we saw long lines at the fuel pump and immediate fear of a gas shortage. Thankfully, the crisis was averted for the most part for the end consumer but what if that trickled down to mean no gas for ambulances, or stress on people that drove them to the hospital? Suddenly it’s a healthcare issue. What if you had a trip planned to see your family for the first time in a year and couldn’t get (or afford) gasoline or your plane ticket suddenly tripled in price? We’re all connected in one way or another.

Cybercrime is everyone’s problem and if it doesn’t affect your office or your Facebook account, it will still affect you in one way or another. One person’s mistake could mean a breach of your bank account. We need to normalize cyber safety and smart practices with regard to the technology that we use in the same way that we know traffic laws and rules when we get our driver’s license. It needs to become second nature, not a stop and panic reaction because there isn’t a second chance once you’ve clicked on a dangerous link.

Is your business making cybersecurity a top priority in the workplace? Are you ensuring that your family and friends are doing the same? We must make a collective effort to maintain strength against criminals because we are collectively affected by the crime. If you would like to discuss how to increase cybersecurity awareness at your workplace, call us today at 1-833-TECH-033.

Stop Cybercrime

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Cybersecurity and Identity Cloning

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What is cybersecurity and how does it work?

Cybersecurity is also known as information security or information and communication technology security. It is defined as all those measures aimed at preserving the privacy and personal data of people who need it through a computer or any smart device. Nowadays the amount of people who are having problems with identity cloning has risen drastically over the years. According to the Federal Trade Commission the number of identity theft/fraud complaints increased 45% between 2019 and 2020. There are many ways to prevent identity cloning, but people still do not give enough importance to cybersecurity as they should.

How will cybersecurity help protect you?

To make it difficult for criminals to have problems or at least to make it difficult for them to commit their crimes, security professionals have decided to implement a series of measures.


• First, they use software that complies with all security standards, and they also use cryptographic and data encryption techniques to protect the information they have.
• They use network surveillance and even establish perimeter security networks that protect data under two or more levels of cyber barriers.
• It is necessary to have intrusion detection systems, antivirus, or the famous firewalls.

These are usually simple or really complex depending on the importance of the information.
Along with these measures and many more, there are cybersecurity experts who use tools that are much more basic than the previous ones but are equally effective in preserving information.


Sometimes even those who are operating with that data may not be able to see it in its entirety. This is so that they never have the complete information and can modify or filter it.


Protecting identities is not up to individuals alone. Businesses that have personally identifiable information for their employees and clients on their networks, must also make sure they are taking every precaution to protect other’s identities.


In conclusion, today I wanted to explain a little bit about where cybersecurity was going, what it was, and why it is so important today to hire a good cybersecurity service, as the one we offer at Applied Technology Group.