Computer Security Risks
Computer Security Risks
As ambulance billing is conducted on computer software, the typical ambulance and fire department is now home to a handful of laptop or desktop computers and most are likely to be connected to the internet for as long as the computer is on. Of course a lot of managers and fire chiefs have in place a number of rules and/or regulations regarding Internet use by employees on the working premises and rightly so, but these are not normally put in place for security reason, they normally arise to prevent users spending time online instead of fulfilling their employment terms and conditions. This is perfectly normal behavior from the employer but it does not prevent the risk of Malware and viruses entering an individual computer or network, where an internal network exists.
Computer viruses have existed for nearly as long as computers have and for whatever reason there are people in the world who just love to create havoc with other peoples computer systems and there are many famous instances over the years to demonstrate that the bigger the network they can hack, the more news worthy it is and the bigger the ego becomes. Why then, would they bother disrupting an ambulance or fire department? The answer is they do not typically select a specific target in their day to day activities, more a scatter-gun approach that harms and disrupts as many computer systems as possible.
How do ambulance and fire departments combat this? The worrying answer is that most do not and tend to rely on the user to adopt some common sense when using internet sites. Providing the end user knows what to look out for and can identify a potential threat then this may be enough but in most cases it is not enough of a preventative measure, a measure that could ultimately cost thousands of dollars. ABS Inc. is going to expand on this subject next week, highlighting what happens when a virus strikes and what the potential knock-on effects are.
