Susan Clark, Senior Director of Program Development, DirectTrust
LinkedIn: Susan Clark
Clark on Connecting
Like many of you, I’m loyal to a fault to people and companies that have my back.
That’s why making Clonnections is so important, to establish ties for future business friendships and collaborations that may benefit you, the other person, or both. I’m just as happy to help someone else as I am to receive assistance when I need it. Loyalty and trust can be difficult to establish, however. You have to be open to the connection but realistic about whether that loyalty and trust are warranted.
That’s why I’m happy to work at DirectTrust, which helps healthcare organizations securely exchange protected health information (PHI) and provides agnostic accreditation and certification so companies can be confident in their cybersecurity frameworks and policies. It’s rewarding to work across the healthcare industry, and it gets me out of the office occasionally to make more and more Clonnections!
Speaking of getting out of the office Clonnections, I was pumped to meet Timory Naples, Northwestern Mutual’s HIPAA Privacy Official/Data Privacy Lead, at this fall’s DirectTrust conference. I’ve been a Northwestern Mutual customer since my 20s, when I bought my first insurance policy from my cousin. It was his first job out of college, and my cousin is still with the company, running his own office from a small town in Illinois. I texted my cousin and my current agent in Indianapolis a picture of the two of us, one natural redhead (Timory) and one who chooses her red hair color (me). It may be cyber-geeky, but it’s reassuring to meet the person who’s in charge of my data at Northwestern Mutual.
Timory spoke at a DirectTrust conference session on security incident and privacy breach management, sharing the stage with Patricio Garcia, CEO and founder of consulting firm Kompleye, and Massimo Marini, managing director of security at KUMA LLC. I’ve known Massimo for several years, meeting at a conference in Texas several years ago. He gave me my well-worn “I Love HIPAA” T-shirt, and we’ve been friends ever since. At last year’s Civitas conference, Massimo’s company had a party where I got to sing karaoke. While my performance probably netted his company zero business, I still had fun.
If you think about it, creating a security culture at your company is like establishing Clonnections — mutually beneficial arrangements where you can offer your products and services confidently, and customers can trust that their data is secure. As hackers grow their skillsets, however, breaches can still happen in even the most secure environments. As the industry saying goes, the bad guys have to get it right just once.
How a company responds to a cybersecurity incident can go a long way toward reinforcing loyalty and trust — or shattering it completely.
That’s why DirectTrust has begun a Cybersecurity Workgroup. We held an information session in October and a kickoff meeting earlier this month. The workgroup aims to address the growing issue of cyber and ransomware attacks on healthcare systems, encourages collaboration to address timely cybersecurity issues, and creates a collaborative space for peer discussion and problem-solving. We will be leveraging the workgroup’s collective expertise for legislative and regulatory activities in 2025.
Please note that membership in DirectTrust is required for participation in workgroups. If you’re interested, you can sign up here.
Creating a cybersecurity culture at your company can instill trust in your customers that leads to greater loyalty.
