Posts By: Beth Osborne

InfoWerks Opens New Corporate Headquarters in Las Vegas

Posted by & filed under InfoWerks News.

We have exciting news to share! We’ve recently opened a new corporate headquarters in Las Vegas. We are proud to be part of the Las Vegas community. While we still have many virtual employees all over the country, Las Vegas is our permanent home. And we aspire to make an amazing place to work every day.

Inside the New Office: Design and Inspiration

We’re not your average company, so we did more than set up a basic office with blank walls and neutral colors. We turned to our branding elements for inspiration. Green has always been our feature color, and this year we added a splash of bright blue to the mix. You can see these colors incorporated throughout the building. From painted ceiling tiles to patterned flooring, we love the lively feel of the new place.

The new office also boasts plenty of natural sunlight. Living in the almost always sunny Las Vegas means we get to enjoy it year round.

Besides all the pops of color and branding, our new office has advanced technology. This technology allows us to instantly connect via video chat with customers, partners, and colleagues. We’ve also installed significant security features to ensure the safety of data and compliance with HIPAA.

InfoWerks’ Team Has First Event at New Corporate Headquarters

ribbon cutting corporate headquarters

We were able to share the new corporate headquarters with all InfoWerkers. During our annual iConnect event, our founders hosted a meet and greet. Everyone enjoyed ribs, burgers, hotdogs, and more. The event culminated with a ribbon-cutting, officially christening the new space. All team member signed the large scissors as well, which will be hung in the new office.

Growth Expected in Las Vegas

We have grown substantially in the last year, hiring new roles and adding to teams. Our plans for 2020 are just as aggressive. Our mission is to deliver critical data management solutions securely and seamlessly for pharmacy, healthcare, and beyond. Our foremost objective is to offer our customers the ability to access and transport their data without restraints and to do so with reliable support and service.

We focus on this mission every day and know that we’ll need many more talented, self-driven employees to make it a reality.

We look forward to all the amazing things that this new headquarters offers. If you’re ever in Las Vegas, feel free to stop by and visit us!

EHR Patient Data Found for Sale Online, Browser Extensions Found to Be Source of Leak

Posted by & filed under Healthcare.

hacker

The Washington Post recently posted an alarming story relating to EHR patient data being sold online. The culprit? Web browser extensions. The Post reports that as many as four million people have browser extensions that sell their every click.

The investigation prompted a notification to Google and Mozilla, which reported that they had closed these leaks immediately. However, many more could be out there.

Plug-Ins Make Life Easier

The beauty of integrating plug-ins into your web browser is that they should make your life online easier. Many of you probably use them to store passwords with a platform like 1Password.

The problem is that most users install these add-ons believing Chrome or Internet Explorer offer them, so they must be legitimate. While many are, some extensions are doing extra duty.

The Data Economy

Once these plug-ins have a window into your browsing, they can pass of information about where you spend your time. So much activity occurs in your browser. If you’re in the healthcare field, you are probably using your EHR within your browser, which means data brokers could be viewing protected information.

That’s exactly what the Washington Post reporter found. In his article, he shared that he found the names of patients, doctors, and even medications. With this data available and for sale on data broker sites, it’s clear that a data breach has occurred. And not one that many would have expected.

How Many Extensions Are Leaking Private and Sensitive Data?

ehr patient data google

While the  Washington Post only found a handful of extensions with nefarious dealings, a North Carolina State University study of the 180,000 Chrome extensions found that there were 3,800 problematic add-ons. Not all of these are extensions are doing something illegal. Many of them make it known to users that they are collecting data based on their search history. But of those 3,800 add-ons, the study found that at least 382 were in the data sales business. However, there is no regulation that prevents them from doing this.

What You Can Do to Protect Your Sensitive Data

EHR patient data is private and protected. Should it fall into the wrong hands, you could be liable and be found to be noncompliant with HIPAA. To prevent extension-related leaks, your organization should have security guidelines in place about what extensions a user can add. Your IT team may decide to whitelist some like password savers.

But this due diligence should extend to your vendors as well, especially if you are expected to initiate a data conversion in the future. In a data conversion, a data management company pulls data from an old EHR system and then formats and prepares it for loading into your new system. You should ask about their policy on browser extensions for added peace of mind.

Data leaks happen, but there are many things you can do to keep your EHR patient data safe. One of which is limited browser extension integrations. Be sure to update your policy immediately to protect your data.

InfoWerks Team Building and Learning: iConnect 2019

Posted by & filed under Events, InfoWerks News.

The InfoWerks team is more than just a group of people that work together. We’re a team because of the strong relationships and inclusive culture that’s part of the company’s DNA. We recently hosted our annual iConnect event, bringing together all our employees for a day of learning, growth, and fun in Las Vegas.

Christening the New Office

The festivities began with a cookout at our new office. Our Infowerks’ chefs were hard at work, smoking meat and grilling burgers. All employees got the chance to check out our new corporate headquarters with its funky and modern design elements and advanced technology.

Our founders, Jeff Deitch and Paul Placek officially cut the ribbon, and we all toasted to the future and what we can all accomplish together.

iconnect images

iConnect Focuses on Building Leaders and Evolving for the Future

The next day, we hosted an all-day meeting for all employees. Included in this agenda was a guest speaker, David Fares, from Insperity. He offered us all insights and ideas around what leadership means and how we can all be leaders in every aspect of our life. Big thanks to David for joining us.

The meeting continued with updates from leadership, including reports from sales, customer experience, development, and IT.

At the end of the day, leadership provided the team with our goals for 2020. We also learned of plans for 2020 that include the expansion of our product suite to serve our customers better.

Leadership also introduced the company’s new core values.

Our Values

Integrity and Accountability

We do what we say we’re going to do. If we make mistakes, we fix them and learn from them.

Empowerment

We trust our employees to make the right decisions and give them the freedom to do so.

Discipline

We do things the right way always, never cutting corners or exposing our customers to risk.

Continual Improvement

We aren’t complacent. Evolving, growing, and learning are central to our success.

Work Hard, Play Hard

We want our employees to do their best job every day, have fun doing it, and be able to have a life outside of it.

And we lived these values, including having some fun. The night ended with food and fun at Topgolf, where several employees showed off their impressive swings. iConnect has become a critical event each year, helping employees build relationships and share what they’ve learned.

We look forward to many more employee events in the future, as our team continues to grow.