If you access work email, Microsoft Teams or Microsoft Office from your personal phone or tablet, you will soon experience some changes to how you access these apps. Additionally, if you access VDI remotely from a personal device, you will soon notice some changes, as well.
Why are we making changes?
Cyberattacks on hospitals and health systems can be devastating to both team members and patients. As the nature of cyberattacks is always evolving and health systems are among the most common targets, it is vital that our cybersecurity measures are as good as they can be. To this end, we are constantly evaluating our own cybersecurity practices and seeking to improve them before weaknesses can develop.
There is always a heightened security risk when team members access work accounts from their personal devices, but we understand that many of our team members use their devices for a variety of work-related purposes. So that our teams can continue to access work accounts from personal devices while ensuring we are taking every reasonable step to protect our patients from cyberattacks, we are implementing three changes to how team members will access accounts remotely.
These changes have been deemed critical by executive leadership, Compliance and IT Security, as they will continue to strengthen our security profile in an area ripe for exploitation by cybercriminals.
More details on these changes
Each of these three changes is detailed on an IT SharePoint “Share IT” page. If you are reading this on a Ballad Health device using your Ballad Health login, you can reach the SharePoint page here: ShareIT. (Otherwise, you can reach the page from the Ballad Health intranet by clicking Departments in the navigation bar, then selecting Information Technology from the dropdown menu.)
You will see resources for the Intune/MFA/VDI initiative at the top left, next to the Get Help bar, including a What’s Changing? icon. Once you click on that and go to the Intune/MFA/VDI page, select the What’s Changing? icon on that page, and it will give you specific details about the changes.
This Intune/MFA/VDI page will be your No. 1 source of information for these changes. In addition to a description of the changes, it contains detailed tip sheets, video tutorials and an FAQ. Support schedules will also be posted under the Support Schedules for Team Members tab as soon as they are ready.
We appreciate your help in making this a seamless transition that will improve the consistency and security of our remote access systems and protect our patients. If you need any additional help, please reach out to the IT Service Desk at 423-431-6290.
