TOWARDS BETTER INFORMATION SECURITY IN GOVERNMENT- OPERATED HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION SYSTEMS: IT POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON REAL-LIFE SECURITY EVALUATION

Abstract

Information security has become crucial in healthcare administration systems as high- profile data breaches have increased in the last decade. Unfortunately, the lack of adherence to current information security standards and practices in healthcare administration systems is an important contributing factor. In this thesis, the information security practices of a healthcare administration system was evaluated, which resulted in a customized set of security guidelines for maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive health information. These customized security guidelines proved useful in determining a large number of security vulnerabilities which will help in minimizing security breaches in healthcare administration systems. This study demonstrates how improvement in established information security standards and guidelines followed by healthcare administration systems can help government executives, public policy-makers and federal regulators in effectively monitoring, identifying, and responding to challenges associated with security breaches in healthcare administration systems.