Atlantic Health System Expands Partnership With CynergisTek To Address Heightened Cyber Threat Environment

New Jersey Non-Profit Health Care System Completes Proactive Phishing Risk Assessment, Educating Staff and Establishing Secure Processes for Email Evaluation and Handling

CynergisTek, an authority in health information privacy, security and compliance, recently announced that Atlantic Health System, one of the largest non-profit health care organizations in New Jersey, has expanded its security services engagement with the company. The system recently completed CynergisTek’s Phishing Assessment program to evaluate its overall susceptibility to phishing attacks using realistic scenarios and comprehensive perimeter evaluations that identify areas of vulnerability. Findings from the exercise provided the organization with a baseline understanding of its workforce’s ability to identify suspicious emails and valuable insight into how far in the phishing net they swam.

CynergisTek leveraged the results of the assessment to provide actionable insights and timely staff education that will help the system maintain the integrity of its protected information assets. Recent cyberattacks aimed at the healthcare industry prompted Atlantic Health System to take proactive steps to mitigate its risk for falling victim to cybercrime. The organization also benefits from CynergisTek’s Compliance Assist Partner Program (CAPP), which provides ongoing technical testing and executive reviews of its privacy and security processes.

“As a trusted partner for the past decade, CynergisTek provides periodic evaluations of our systems and expert advice to keep us on pace with evolving security threats and priorities, like cybersecurity,” said Larry G. Pierce, Manager of Information Security and Enterprise Management at Atlantic Health System. “The assessment was invaluable in terms of gleaning solid metrics regarding our personnel and raising awareness of pertinent threats. Now, we are better equipped to identify, respond and better educate our workforce to a phishing campaign targeting our organization.”

CynergisTek’s Phishing Assessment allows an organization to assess their employees’ behavior handling phishing emails, and provides instant training when they fall victim to it. The service also includes analytics and reporting that provides an accurate snapshot of employee interaction with phish that can be enumerated with totals for platforms, operating systems and browsers – highlighting where systems and processes are most vulnerable.

“Phishing has become one of the top security threats to healthcare, and the industry is simply not prepared for the kind of attacks we have been seeing,” said Dr. Michael Mathews, COO of CynergisTek. “We are dedicated to ensuring our customers are adequately prepared to manage an ever-changing threat environment, so we are happy be supporting Atlantic Health in enhancing its cybersecurity posture.”

About Atlantic Health System
Atlantic Health System, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, is one of the largest non-profit healthcare systems in New Jersey. It includes Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, NJ; Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ; Newton Medical Center in Newton, NJ; Chilton Medical Center in Pompton Plains, NJ; and Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown, NJ, as well as Atlantic Rehabilitation, and Atlantic Home Care and Hospice. It also includes its subsidiary, Atlantic Ambulance Corporation. Atlantic Health System comprises 1,599 licensed beds, more than 14,000 employees and more than 4,000 physicians. Atlantic Health System has a medical school affiliation with the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University; a Major Clinical Affiliate of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey; part of Atlantic Accountable Care Organization, one of the largest ACOs in the nation, and is a member of AllSpire Health Partners.

About CynergisTek
CynergisTek is a top-ranked information privacy and security consulting firm. The company offers solutions to help organizations measure privacy and security programs against regulatory requirements and assists in developing risk management best practices. Since 2003 the company has served as a partner to hundreds in the healthcare industry. CynergisTek is also dedicated to supporting and educating the industry by contributing to relevant associations such as HIMSS, AHIMA, HFMA, HCCA, AHIA, AHLA, IAPP and CHIME. CynergisTek was recognized by KLAS, as one of three firms provider organizations turn to most for privacy and security assistance in its groundbreaking report released in May 2014, entitled “Security and Privacy Perception 2014: High Stakes, Big Challenges.” For more information, visit www.cynergistek.com.