Cyber security awareness

About cyber security awareness

Everyone involved in providing and supporting healthcare plays a role in maintaining the privacy of people’s information that healthcare provider organisations hold. This means making sure everyone is secure in their online behaviours, both at work and at home.

There are several ways you can help to reduce the risk of data compromise or the disclosure of sensitive information.

Awareness of those risks is a good starting point.

Developing cyber security awareness in your organisation happens over time, but it’s also something that needs to be constantly renewed. It’s vital to keep up to date with emerging security threats and to be aware of the possible risks that can apply to any role across the healthcare sector.

Understanding the risks

Did you know that malicious software attacks and online scams often occur through emails and unsecure Wi-Fi connections?

Are you aware that unless strong privacy settings are in place, social media posts could be used and shared by anyone, for malicious purposes?

Risks to your organisation

As someone who works in healthcare you need to be aware of the potential financial, legal and reputational risks your organisation might face if criminals manage to compromise your computer systems or steal sensitive health information.

Cyber-attacks can even result in loss of access to critical business systems, which could result in a data breach - leading to reputational damage and impacts on people’s privacy.

Cyber Security Awareness eLearning course

It’s important to have secure technology that protects digital health information against attack. But this needs to be backed by cyber security awareness in your organisation as well.

The Digital Health Security Awareness eLearning course includes five modules, with examples that relate cyber security concepts to people’s work in healthcare organisations.

This free course has been developed by the Agency’s cyber security team, in consultation with representatives from a range of healthcare settings and disciplines, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, practice management and allied health.

Cyber security behaviours

To help inform cyber security behaviours in your organisation, you can provide staff with access to education and resources provided by the Australian Digital Health Cyber Security Centre. 

It’s also important for your organisation to establish clear information security policies and practices that staff can follow each and every day.

The following key resources will support cyber security behaviours in your organisation:

• Security behaviours (PDF, 540.27 KB) – developing a positive security culture within healthcare
• Information security guide for small healthcare businesses – key steps to take to protect your business from cyber security threats.
• Passwords fact sheet (PDF, 467.51 KB) – understanding the importance of passwords, password managers and multi-factor authentication
• How to manage your digital footprint (PDF, 553.38 KB) – identifying and managing your online trail of information
• Think before you click (PDF, 886.96 KB) – knowing why you should stop, think and consider the risks before you click.