Your Vendors Have the Keys: The Cyber Risk Dental Practices Ignore

Aug 28, 2026

The biggest cybersecurity threat to your dental practice may not be a hacker trying to break through your firewall. It could be a vendor you already trust.

In this episode of the Raving Patients Podcast, Dr. Len Tau sits down with Anthony Jurjevic, CISSP, founder and CEO of Techspedient, to uncover the cybersecurity risks many dental practices do not realize are already inside their networks. With more than 25 years in healthcare IT and cybersecurity, including over 15 years focused on dental technology, Anthony explains why vendor access, outdated credentials, shared passwords, and poorly managed remote access tools can leave practices vulnerable.

Anthony explains how practice management companies, imaging vendors, billing services, patient communication platforms, phone systems, and other vendors may have ongoing access to a practice's network. The problem is not necessarily that these vendors are unsafe. It is that many practices do not know who still has access, how that access is being monitored, or what happens if a vendor's credentials are compromised.

The conversation also tackles one of the biggest misconceptions in dental cybersecurity: being in the cloud does not automatically mean your practice is backed up or secure. Anthony shares how attackers can compromise a workstation, use saved credentials to access cloud-based patient information, and quietly steal data without encrypting an entire network. He explains why modern ransomware attacks increasingly focus on data theft and extortion, making traditional backups only one piece of a much larger security strategy.
Dr. Len and Anthony also discuss HIPAA compliance, what happens after a ransomware attack, the importance of cyber insurance and forensic investigations, and the practical steps dentists can take right now to identify vulnerabilities. From auditing vendor access and removing former employees to testing backups, enabling multi-factor authentication, and conducting third-party cybersecurity assessments, this episode gives practice owners a practical look at protecting both their patients and their businesses.

What You'll Learn

• Why trusted vendors can become one of your biggest cybersecurity vulnerabilities

• How unattended remote access can expose your dental practice

• Why being "in the cloud" does not automatically make your data safe

• How modern ransomware has shifted from encrypting data to stealing it

• Why backups cannot protect you once patient data has already been stolen

• What "HIPAA compliant" software really means for a dental practice

• What to do immediately after discovering a possible ransomware attack

• Why individual user accounts are safer than shared passwords

• How to audit vendor access, administrative permissions, and former employee accounts

• Why multi-factor authentication should be enabled wherever possible

• How penetration testing can reveal weaknesses before an attacker finds them

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Key Takeaways

02:13 Your Vendors Have the Keys: The Cyber Risk Dental Practices Ignore

03:45 Meet Anthony Jurjevic

05:35 The Hidden Risk of Vendor Access

09:55 Why the Cloud Is Not a Backup

13:12 Ransomware, Data Theft, and Cyber Threats

17:57 What HIPAA Compliance Really Means

19:42 What Happens After a Ransomware Attack

24:54 Simple Ways to Protect Your Practice

26:20 The Danger of Shared Credentials

30:06 Testing Your Practice's Cybersecurity

32:15 Lightning Round

35:55 Connect With Anthony

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Connect With Anthony

Email: [e-mail]

Phone: [phone]

Company: Techspedient - https://www.techspedient.com/

Anthony is also offering Raving Patients listeners a free simulated phishing attack for their practice. There is no obligation or sales pressure, and practices receive the reports so they can see where their vulnerabilities may be and address them with their IT provider.

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Learn proven dental marketing strategies and online reputation management techniques at DrLenTau.com.

 

This podcast is sponsored by Dental Intelligence. Learn more here.

 

This podcast is sponsored by CallRail, call tracking & lead conversion software for dentists. Find out more here.

 

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