Like with most things in healthcare, organizations need to keep following up after choosing the right vendor and signing an airtight contract to best protect data. In the last few years, cloud computing has moved from an option for healthcare providers to, increasingly, a business necessity. By outsourcing data management to a cloud services company, hospitals can free up their own technical staff to do more work closer to their core competencies. Still, for hospitals contemplating a move to the cloud, security remains a concern. Keeping biometric data secure is high-stakes.
If customers’ credit card information or passwords get compromised, they can get new credit cards and make new passwords. But if health data gets compromised, it’s compromised forever: Patients can’t change their allergies, blood type or medical history.
Is the cloud more secure?
Most of the experts MobiHealthNews spoke to for this story agreed that these days, all other things equal, moving to the cloud is a step up for security.
“Cloud-based solutions have matured to a point where they are more secure than local server solutions alone,” said Hector Rodriguez, Microsoft’s Worldwide Health chief information security officer. “The reality is that these solutions, when properly integrated, should and do strengthen an enterprise’s overall cybersecurity posture by adding additional layers of security and monitoring.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean that all cloud solutions are more secure than all local solutions. Many other factors contribute, such as the quality of the team involved. But because a cloud provider can be singularly focused on security, while an in-house team has many responsibilities, they have an advantage. The best defense against this risk, he said, is for organizations to resist the urge to publicize a move to the cloud when it comes to sensitive data.
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