I love summer. The warm weather offers plenty of opportunities to participate in summer activities like grilling, going to the beach and fishing (although, you may remember from a previous blog post that I’m a bigger fan of talking about phishing).
If you’re a summer-loving security expert like me, then you’re always thinking about ways to protect your systems from security threats. Here are five ways to keep payment security cool at your organization all summer long.
- Know How to Block Threats From Entering Your Systems
We’re taught from a young age to wear sunscreen to protect our skin from the harmful UV rays of the sun. You can think about point-to-point encryption (P2PE) like sunscreen for credit card data. P2PE secures credit card data by encrypting it from the time a card is swiped, inserted or keyed until it reaches a secure endpoint like InstaMed’s data centers. - Learn About Tokenization
When I was a kid, I used to love going to arcades during summer vacation. I remember exchanging my dollar bills for tokens to use to play my favorite games. Tokenization for online payments is similar in the sense that when sensitive payment data is entered online, it is replaced by a token. This token has no monetary value and is simply transmitted through the applications performing the payment transaction. Tokenization is very effective at protecting payment data. Healthcare organizations that leverage the InstaMed Secure Token not only protect payment information, they also deliver a seamless consumer payment experience and reduce PCI scope by up to 90%. - Stay Educated On the Latest Trends in Healthcare Payments and Security
Summer is a great time to cross off a few titles on your reading list. Make sure to include industry reports in your reading as well. Last month, I reviewed Symantec’s annual Internet Security Report and wrote about the 3 Key Security Threat Trends Healthcare Organizations Can’t Ignore. This month, InstaMed published our Seventh Annual Trends in Healthcare Payments Report. The Report features key market trends influencing the healthcare industry from an objective view to educate the market and promote awareness, change and greater efficiency. - Check the Certifications of the Vendors You Work With
One of my favorite summer activities is grilling. When I grill, I always make sure I’m using USDA graded meat so I know I can guarantee quality, flavor and freshness. You can guarantee quality and the highest levels of security and compliance for healthcare payments if you seek out partnerships with vendors who have the best certifications in the industry. Keep in mind that some vendors may claim to be compliant, but haven’t actually have put the time and resources into undergoing audits and achieving certifications. Here’s a helpful list of the kind of credentials you want to look for when selecting a healthcare vendor. - Don’t Ignore New Technologies and Payment Innovations
Hollywood always releases blockbusters like action and superhero films over the summer. My favorite things about going to the movies are the popcorn and the cool and consistent stream of air conditioning they pump into the theater. However, I’m not a fan of waiting around so I never liked standing in long lines to buy tickets. What’s great about going to the movies now is that I can purchase tickets online beforehand, eliminating all the negative aspects of my movie-going experience. Healthcare organizations can eliminate the pain in the payments experience by considering different payment channels, like online and mobile. In fact, the more payment channels you offer, the better experience you create for both patients and staff. Plus, many of these payment channels offer enhanced security, so even though opening up new payment channels may seem like a way to create more vulnerabilities at your organization, it can actually be a way to improve your security.