Faxes and hippa

[KenB]

Intercepting a fax transmission, even over a standard analog phone line, is rare, but not unheard of.

The much bigger security issue is the carelessness displayed during the sending and receiving processes.

Having faxes sent to email or folder, without being printed, helps a bit on the receive side, at least.

[rspicer]

The funniest ones are the medical customers that insist on having fax to make it compliant, but have us program the machine to forward all received faxes to an email so it doesn't waste paper.

[tsbservice]

The funniest ones are the medical customers that insist on having fax to make it compliant, but have us program the machine to forward all received faxes to an email so it doesn't waste paper.

Thanks God, i didn't have to see faxes for a good time. This medical customers attitude is hilarious, though

[Vincent128]

The "reason" Fax is more "secure" in it's sending of a TIFF via audio that you can record on audio tape, digitize and reconstruct the TIFF is that doing so breaks wire tap law - federal offense .

Intercepting an email ...not so much a deal..

they need like..a block chain Ifax or something ... I do so wish for the day that fax is gone, the industry has been saying that day is coming for the last 20+ GD years

[KenB]

The "reason" Fax is more "secure" in it's sending of a TIFF via audio that you can record on audio tape, digitize and reconstruct the TIFF is that doing so breaks wire tap law - federal offense .

Intercepting an email ...not so much a deal..

they need like..a block chain Ifax or something ... I do so wish for the day that fax is gone, the industry has been saying that day is coming for the last 20+ GD years

I don’t think most hackers concern themselves much with breaking federal wiretap laws.

[JR2ALTA]

The problem is no one in the world can guarantee reliable, fast, high quality fax transmissions.....yet we're expected to fix the crap.

Even when the manual describes an error code it's incomprehensible and useless for troubleshooting.

DIE FAXES DIE

[KenB]

The funniest ones are the medical customers that insist on having fax to make it compliant, but have us program the machine to forward all received faxes to an email so it doesn't waste paper.

A lot of times, not printing isn’t so much to conserve paper (or clicks), but to maintain better security.

[tonerhead]

I've been telling customers with issues, nothing I can do. A common thread is "we will have to look elsewhere then" The salesman from other company says their fax works fine, blah, blah, blah.

Another thing about emails and hippa is that emails are typically scanned for patterns of malware in them. Make the leap to say they are "read" by this so they say.

Like was previously mentioned medical and legal are the cheapest professions around when it comes to updating office equipment. Why should they pay $$ for something that works when faxing is free.

The really sad thing about hippa and faxing is there no longer is analog phone lines anywhere. It might be analog from our business to the central office of the phone company, but from there it follows the same path as emails, going through the same routers, switches, and gateways to it's final destination. Personally Hippa should re-evaluate fax security and proclaim it no longer compliant.

The only drawback on email is that it is stored on the sending and receiving pc's. Contrast this to a fax, the original and the received pages are either stored securely in a file cabinet or shredded.

We rely on internet security daily in our online purchases and bill pay. So the reliability and security is out there. The endpoints (starting and stopping computers) are the issue. If they are hacked we have a data breach. Really, what is the difference if my medical records get hacked in an email or through the medical data storage. At least an email is encrypted, their data storage probably is not.

It's no win for everyone because cyber crime is hard to prove, difficult to trace, and there are few qualified to enforce it as well as difficult to punish.

[BaconSteve]

The funniest ones are the medical customers that insist on having fax to make it compliant, but have us program the machine to forward all received faxes to an email so it doesn't waste paper.

I had one like this. They were also an Apple office (ugh). I guess there must have been an HIPAA update and Apple has become non HIPAA compliant. They had me come out and disable fax forwarding, turn on secure fax ( requires a code to release fax’s from memory) and help install print drivers and configure secure printing on all of their new Microsoft PCs. I admire their honesty and efforts to keep all of our information as secure as possible.

[qbert69]

FAX is predicated and was designed strictly on the use of a POTS UTP Analog line. Any deviation from that BASTARDIZES the technology!!! Fax converted from analog to digital through VOIP or whatever other conversion service steps OUTSIDE the bounds of the point-to-point protocol when processed through digital but also bastardizes the audio tone/signal in the conversion process, potentially causing missed/dropped/broken & potentially hacked communications. I ALWAYS ask a customer if they have a DEDICATED ANALOG LINE!!! If they don't have a dedicated line & a consistent present dialtone, I go no further than to explain that fax was DESIGNED for a POTS UTP line and any other bastardization of the signal processing destroys the intent and functionality of the original communication process. And leave it at that!!! If the fax was working before they put in the damn VOIP device, well then, they need to contact the VOIP provider to work that shit out!!! I CERTAINLY don't get paid by the VOIP provider to troubleshoot their shit!!!...if you paid for the VOIP line to "save money" and your "fax doesn't work", well I guess you need to fix your own damn problem, don't you?!

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