Houston IT Consulting Advisors, Security Information Management & Compliance Professionals
Citiscape IT provides Houston businesses and medical practices a BETTER WAY to manage IT, information, assets, security, network, and compliance initiatives. We provide businesses and medical practices with compliant, secure, and defensible technology platforms to manage and build business upon. When your technology is tuned to the field your company operates in, your business excels. Computers, networks, and information assets are core to management of any business. When technology investments fail, every aspect of your business comes to a grinding halt. Computer, network, security, and infrastructure problems aren't just a nuisance; they are a disaster. Your company needs and deserves the best IT consulting and compliance services available, to ensure it functions at its maximum efficiency at all times, and is compliant with federal and state regulatory compliance initiatives. When managed correctly, this provides your business with:
- Maximum Operational Efficiencies
- Improved Staff Morale
- Happy Clients
- Profitability for the Business
Having our team of certified and state licensed technology and security professionals is usually more cost effective than hiring your own in-house IT staff. We provide you with:
- Maximum uptime and Peak Performance
- Rock Solid IT Security and Compliance Solutions Customized for Businesses in the State of Texas
- Lower Overall IT Expenses and Predictable Budgets
- Stronger Business Relationships
- Individualized Technology and Security Plans and Guidance for Informed Decision-Making
Our clients have seen numerous benefits as a result of our business acumen, as well as our regulatory compliance knowledge and experience; providing the best consulting, and defensible compliance services available in the State of Texas. Our clients experience:
- Immediate Positive Results
- Reduced Risk
- Fewer Failures
- Greater Employee Productivity
- Operational Cost Savings
- Increased Profitability
Our main office is located in Houston, Texas. We specialize in personable, on-site security and compliance consulting services, IT and network security services, IT auditing services, data mapping services, HIPAA risk analysis, HIPAA risk assessments, PCI-DSS risk analysis, PCI-DSS risk assessments and security management plans. Houston businesses and medical practices. Being local matters!! Our data loss prevention, IT risk assessment, IT audit, IT security management, and in-house compliance engineering services offer a one of a kind solution package for any Houston business or medical practice under regulatory compliance restrictions in the State of Texas.
Defensible Consulting Services
Citiscape IT is a Texas Covered Entity (CE), and we are audited annually by the State of Texas Regulatory Services Division. Meeting the strictest guidelines by the State of Texas Security Division, our fully vetted information security and technology consultants meet and exceed the security requirements by the State of Texas.
Specialized Services:
- On-Demand HIPAA-HITECH security and privacy consulting and remediation services
- Compliance strategic planning
- Virtual compliance officer
- EMR, EHR, PPM implementation services
- Expert witness: healthcare privacy, security
- Development and implementation of efficient and secure methods of electronic health information exchange
- Staff training and educational materials development
- Policy white paper development (state/federal)
- Policy, procedure and process evaluations, development & customization
- Strategic planning incorporating HIT/IT best practices
Our network of licensed and board certified privacy and security compliance associates offers expertise in developing and implementing reliable and workable information privacy, security, regulatory compliance and electronic information exchange solutions for public and private organizations of all sizes. We primarily serve the healthcare and financial services industries but serve other Houston businesses as well.
Our services include:
- Compliance audits & assessments
- Risk analysis & risk assessments
- Mock OCR HIPAA audit services
- Privacy & Security Compliance Officer services
- Privacy & security compliance Training
- Assistance with compliance strategic planning
- Security incident investigation
- Breach notification assistance
- Expert witness services
- Information technology audits
- Security-as-a-service (including compliant backup plans)
- HIPAA & PCI-DSS risk management plans
Houston Information Security - Beyond The Firewall & Data Loss Prevention
IT audit and data loss prevention is a category of information security services that can detect unauthorized network transfer of valuable digital assets such as credit cards, personally identifiable protected health information (PHI / ePHI), company proprietary assets, personally identifiable consumer information and other protected data federally regulated, as well as regulated by the State of Texas. The majority of hacker attacks and data loss events are not on the IT infrastructure but on the data itself and are usually an inside job. Almost all companies have proprietary information needing protection; when you have other valuable data (credit cards, customer lists, social security numbers, physical addresses of clients, confidential personnel records, ePHI) you must protect it. Transfer of digital assets such as company proprietary business information, trade secrets, credit card information, and PHI by trusted insiders, trusted systems, or trusted third party vendors, can cause much more economic damage than viruses to a business. Once a data breach occurs and a competitor steals your proprietary data, or your company winds up being sued because of leaked PHI or legally protected information, you cannot "reformat the hard drive and restore from backup"; there will most likely be significant economic damage to your business and reputation as well as other possible fines and legal issues to deal with. A firewall is not enough to protect digital assets and illegal activity inside the network. Many firewall implementations are not correctly implemented or monitored after deployment. We help our clients grow through effective technology deployment and management. We design, procure, and implement software and network projects as well as information security services to meet your business and computer systems, network, information security and information technology needs. Basic security is grounded in sound operations. Solid process controls in the business functional areas and in IT operations management can mitigate many of the risk vectors. Process controls can often be implemented at a cost even small and medium sized businesses (SMB's) can afford. Information security should be viewed as a strategic process, but there's no doubt the process is heavily influenced by regulatory compliance issues (including Texas privacy law), all areas of our expertise. For organizations that deal with regulated data in the State of Texas (most businesses fall under this category and not just Healthcare; see our "Did You Know" section below), there has to be a balance of both—security of the data and security of the process.
- Affordable IT security solutions, IT audit, analysis and reporting
- Data retrieval & backup strategies and remediation
- Defensible eDiscovery, early case assessment, de-duplication, and data culling services (Corporate)
- Defensible data retention and deletion strategies
- Computer & network security services
- HIPAA security reviews, analysis & security
- PCI-DSS security risk analysis & risk assessments
- Firewall & internet security solutions, monitoring services and log management
- Maintain proper and effective information governance across the enterprise.
- Formal and Informal Information Security Assessments
- Risk and vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, analysis and reporting.
- Mitigate risks and reduce costs associated with unstructured records and to protect sensitive business information.
- Information mapping, identify and classify records according to business value, compliance, regulation and information governance policies.
- Security-as-a-service, ongoing HIPAA & PCI-DSS management plans and initiatives.
Efficiently and economically obtaining and enforcing your document retention and legal hold policy to mitigate risk, while carefully avoiding spoliation of relevant data, is a delicate balancing act. Strike a balance between managing risk and avoiding spoliation. Call us for details at 281-733-2422.
Did You Know?
According to The Texas Identity Theft Identification Act:
- ALL businesses in the State of Texas MUST protect sensitive information (not just medical / healthcare).
- A person who conducts business in Texas or owns/licenses computerized data, including sensitive personal information, must notify affected individuals after a breach of system security.
- This is NOT limited to health information but does apply to CE's and BA's under Health & Safety Code
- Complying with HIPAA does not guarantee one has complied with Texas’ privacy laws OR Texas Healthcare law.
- Texas’ privacy law covers more entities.
- Texas’ privacy law protects more information than what is defined as PHI under HIPAA
- Texas has its own training and notice requirements
- Ref: Business and Commerce Code Chapter 521
Twenty-two percent (22%) or more of small businesses have experienced the loss or theft of customer or employee information, according to recent SME studies conducted by the Ponemon Institute.
