Hands-On Smartphone Security & Privacy for Audiologists

This material was originally developed and presented at AuDacity 2020.

The Need for Security and Privacy

What billboards know about you. Learn more from the NPR Planet Money episode.

Hacking/IT incidents was the top breach cause of healthcare in 2019 (Bitglass Healthcare Breach Report 2020)

HHS/OCR fined a hospital $1 million following the theft of one unencrypted laptop with 20,431 patient records.

What phone is most secure?

Both iPhone and Android have similar security features, even though Android has 86% global market share.

“Surveys have shown that around 80% of physicians use an iPhone,
while most of the remainder opt for Android smartphones.” (2014 study).

Smartphones in the Practice

Business and personal phones commonly used for:

    • Practice email
    • Web access to EDR/OMS
    • Calendar and patient schedule
    • Texts to co-workers
    • Calls/voicemails with patients
    • Photos and videos
    • Practice social media
    • Bank deposits, payments
    • Stored passwords
    • …

Threats to phones from:

    • Loss
    • Theft
    • Hacks

All enabled by insecure passwords and unencrypted data

7 Steps to Safer Smartphones

#1 Install Updates

#2 Setup strong authentication

#3 Set a lock screen

#4 Install a password manager

#5 Setup “find my phone” and remote wipe

#6 Anonymize advertiser ID

#7 Encrypt your device

Ready to Do More?