Secure Texting Best Practices: Communicate Your Policies
Transcript of Secure Texting Best Practices: Communicate Your Policies
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5 Best Practices for Successful Secure
Texting
#3: Communicate Your Policies
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Once you have established the goals and gotten the
organization on board with the plans…
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… it is important to
communicate the policies
for secure texting.
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Every organization is different, but your secure texting policy
should cover things like…
Secure Texting Policies
All messaging needs to be secure. Text messages, images, videos, and files need to be transmitted over a
secure platform.
No SMS texting for organizational use.
Secure Texting Policies
Clarify the types of messages that are allowed and not allowed over the
secure platform. For example, medical orders can be texted, but
must be verified verbally as well.
Secure Texting Policies
All messages on the secure platform are the property of the organization and as such can be accessed, read, deleted or otherwise used by the
organization.
Secure Texting Policies
Define your BYOD policy. Does your organization allows the use of personal
devices (“bring your own device” or BYOD) or will it supply devices to those who need it?
Secure Texting Policies
If BYOD is allowed, what devices are approved or excluded?
Is any operating system or additional security downloads required?
Secure Texting Policies
When and how to report a lost or stolen device so that remote lock &
wipe can be activated.
Secure Texting Policies
Describe details around message expiration and retention.
Determine how long messages will be retained on devices and in the archive, and how to retrieve an
older message if needed.
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Why are these types of policies important?
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Smartphones are ubiquitous in healthcare and are used to
share patient information.
A study conducted by the Health Research Institute has revealed that more than 80% of
healthcare workers now use portable mobile devices to communicate information
to colleagues about their patients or to access stored patient health information.
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Smartphones used inappropriately can lead to
security breaches.
The Center for Democracy and Technology showed that 66 % of potential patient data
security breaches over the past two years were attributable to portable mobile
devices being either stolen or lost.
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Security risks can be greatly diminished.
Establishing these secure texting policies helps to diminish the risk of patient health information
being compromised during the sending or receiving of sensitive data, or while it is stored on
a mobile device.
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Roll out your secure texting initiative today.
Learn more at
www.qliqsoft.com