Due to the pandemic, the need for telemedicine and mHealth technologies has increased and the healthcare sector has seen the historic growth in the use of medical applications. The hospitals, medical offices, and other healthcare organizations have been trying their best to keep up with the patient demand during Covid.

With the increased use of technology and medical applications, the main challenge for healthcare organizations is not the application modeling or the market focus, but data security. Third-party applications, i.e., medical applications, can access critical data such as patient information, linked patient records, due to which interoperability and cybersecurity are the major healthcare concerns. This shows a huge change in the way health services are administered. The top-of-mind concerns for the health system administrators now are the availability, affordability, and uptime of the data centers.

Strict legal requirements have been imposed on the medical industry due to the medical application boom and it is important for the technology used in medical offices to run flawlessly. This particularly implies the telemedicine tech like video conferencing software to remotely deal with the patients, VPNs, data storage, and transmission applications for CT scans, MRIs, and other electronic patient health records.

When we talk about telemedicine technology, the arrival of HIPAA, PCI DSS, and other industry regulations have created several challenges for healthcare providers. Meeting these technical obligations can be very confusing when the level of inspection of your IT performance and security has never been so high. To keep up with the world’s ever-changing privacy and security regulations and best practices, the healthcare industry needs data centers and IT compliance specialists.

Nowadays, the healthcare sector is most vulnerable to data breaches. Data breaches occur as the value of the data has dramatically increased while the amount of security has remained flat or decreased. A data breach happens due to credential-stealing malware, any accidental or intentional disclosure of a patient’s information by an insider, or due to lost or stolen devices.

Healthcare organizations have to maintain the security and integrity of their medical applications to avoid these data breaches.  Traditionally, the EHRs (Electronic Health Records) or PHIs (Protected Health Information) are stored on local servers. However, the most convenient yet secure way of storing such sensitive information is in data centers.

HIPAA Compliant Application Hosting:

HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, set a standard to protect sensitive information related to patients. HIPAA compliance implies that the organizations that deal with Protected Health Information (PHI) must ensure that physical, network, and process security measures are in place. The HIPAA standards are implied on two types of organizations:

• Covered Entities
• Business Associates

The covered entities refer to organizations that collect, create and transmit PHI electronically, such as healthcare providers, clearinghouses, health insurance providers.

Business Associates refer to organizations that interact with PHIs in one way or another over the course of work that it has contracted to perform on behalf of any covered entity. The business associates include billing companies, third-party consultants, IT providers, and others of the sort.

When a medical application is hosted on a non-HIPAA compliant host, it is more prone to data breaches and security threats as HIPAA is the most effective way to secure the PHIs.

HIPAA Requirements for Data Storage:

The HIPAA requires data centers to fulfill the following requirements to be called HIPAA compliant:

• PHIs should be encrypted and secure to prevent any unauthorized access.
• A VPN must be established so only those with credentials can access it remotely.
• Data centers should have disaster recovery plans ready.
• Data should be stored in a redundant, isolated, secure storage connected to high-speed internet.
• The data center should have a distinct web, database, and production server.
• Hospital and patients’ records must be on a private IP address, and hosting should also be private for a particular healthcare organization.

While deciding to host applications, healthcare organizations must choose HIPAA compliant Application hosting to avoid potential data breaches. Data breaches may cause due to HIPAA violation and leads to data theft. Data breaches are costly for covered entities, and being HIPAA compliant reduces the chance of data loss or data theft.

Data Center:

A data center can be defined as a physical facility (when on-premises) or cloud facility (when deployed virtually i.e., in Azure or AWS)  where organizations store their sensitive data and applications. They are mainly composed of networked computers and storage devices. Healthcare organizations should consider working with a data center to avoid any data leaks. The security of the data is then the responsibility of the data center. They take care of all the activities needed to secure and maintain data while controlling access.

For storing and managing the data on a data center, healthcare organizations need one or more hosts based on the amount of data they have. Many data centers and hosting providers provide a secure place to store data. But HIPAA compliant hosting should be the priority of these organizations.

The Importance of Data Centers for Healthcare Organizations:

With increased storage and transmission of large files such as CT scans, MRIs, and other diagnostic images and electronic patient health records, the adoption of data centers has increased immensely due to their secure, robust, and standardized infrastructure. Healthcare organizations are not used to handling the amount of data generated by different machines used in the health sector. Data centers help in better interoperability and are responsible for handling the tasks related to data transmission and security.

The obvious conclusion of the above discussion is that we’re going to need many more data centers than we have now in addition to more security, IT, and compliance specialists.

While deciding to move the data and applications to a data center, the IT professionals such as Database experts and network staff at any healthcare organization must ensure that the data center complies with HIPAA Protocol.

The HIPAA IT Compliance Check goes beyond audits:

To comply with HIPAA, the data centers have to meet strict security requirements. The independent audits can help determine if HIPAA compliance safeguards are implemented in a system or not. But to validate the HIPAA compliance, audits and consultation is not enough.

While looking for colocation or hosting services, the organizations need to sign a business associate agreement. Before selecting a healthcare business associate, diligence must be performed to choose the right associate to work with. You can also check for compliance with the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements 18 (SSAE 18). Adopting SSAE 18 certification along with the HIPAA compliance audits generates redundancy in the third-party security evaluation of the data center you choose.

Many data centers provide HIPAA compliant application hosting, the best of which is the Protected Harbor:

The Protected Harbor:

The Protected Harbor is another healthcare data center specifically designed to host medical applications and data while ensuring HIPAA compliance and securing the PHIs or EHRs. The Protected Harbor hosts large data applications. The data include medical billing, insurance paperwork, patients’ information, health records, and other sensitive information. It is usually used by organizations that need to access data quickly and frequently and transmit it electronically. When talking about big data, security and data leak risks are our major concerns.

Furthermore, complying with HIPAA is not easy, so to be compliant with HIPAA and secure the data while avoiding any data leak risks, the Protected Harbor uses S2D stacks. The S2D (Storage Spaces Direct) is a technology getting more and more adoption in current IT systems. It is included in Windows Server 2016 and uses industry-standard servers with local-attached drives to create highly available and scalable software-defined storage. The Protected Harbor manages the second-largest S2D cluster behind Azure in the U.S.

The Protected Harbor offers you:

• Enhanced Security – something about network configuration being air-gapped
• Reduced Downtime – 99.9% uptime, built for redundancies and data backups
• A cost-effective and secure solution
• Highest regulatory standards
• A specialized team of IT services experts managing day-to-day compliance procedures.
• Real-time visibility, access, and control over the healthcare IT environment from a single platform.

Conclusion:

The health sector creates lots of data daily due to the increased use of technology and software applications. This data includes the patients’ and hospitals’ sensitive information. These organizations are not used to handling this much data, so they consider hosting it on a cloud or any offsite data center instead of hosting it in-house. For keeping the PHIs or EHRs secure, healthcare organizations have to look for a HIPAA-compliant data center.

This article describes HIPAA compliance, why it is important, and how a data center could become HIPAA compliant. It also introduces two data centers that are HIPAA compliant, Protected Harbor being the most secure and recommended.

With the increase in mobile device ownership which includes smartphones and tablets, it’s no surprise that more and more people are looking to the internet for answers to their health concerns. While this is good for patients, it’s also an attractive target for hackers.
We have access to the health information on our smartphones, which can be useful when we need to know something quickly. However, this convenience comes at a cost—we’re not always aware of the risks that come along with using a mobile device to store and share sensitive information.

It’s been reported that less than 50 percent of Americans have taken action to protect their personal health information on a mobile device. (Source; Akasa Automation Report). The benefits of protecting this information are far too great for any person, company, or organization to ignore. It can be secured and protected by applying the following ways:

Password Authenticator

Password authentication is a method in which a user enters a unique ID and key, which is then compared to previously stored credentials. It is one of the quickest forms of security; you can set up your device to require some identification before letting someone access your phone. It can be in a Passcode, PIN, Password, Fingerprint, or 2-factor authentication can be adopted as well.

Multi-factor authentication or 2FA is an additional layer of protection that verifies that anyone attempting to access an online account are who they claim to be. The user must first provide their username and password. They will then be requested to submit another piece of information before they can receive access.

Installing and Enabling Encryption

Encryption is the process in which you convert your data into a form that cannot be accessed or decrypted without the relevant password or key. As a security protocol businesses should encrypt all the data, including the data on mobile devices with information you are receiving and sending to others.

No matter what source of communication you are using, your data remains protected from any unauthorized users and breaches. Encryption of data can be done with various methods, but you might have first to test out your phone’s encryption capabilities if it has built-in full disk encryption or AES 128/ 256 encryption. If it does not have built-in encryption, you might have to use third-party software such as dm-crypt to do the job or work with your Managed IT services to ensure mobile data encryption is included in the device’s security plan.

Use Remote Wiping/Disabling

Remote wipe is a security feature that allows a network administrator or device owner to send a command to a computer device that erases data. It is generally used to wipe data from a device that has been lost or stolen so that the data is not compromised if the device falls into the wrong hands. It can also be used to delete data from a device that has changed owners or administrators and can no longer be physically accessed.
Remote wiping is regarded as a security feature that can be used to wipe your medical device from anywhere around the world if it is lost or stolen. Patients take the medical devices with them to home for gathering and monitoring their health data and end up getting them lost. When used correctly, this feature can save all the essential information and data stored on your phone from the hands of a stranger.

Some mobile devices come with this feature in-built and can be enabled through the safety and privacy or lost device settings. You can set it up and control your phone with your desktop or laptop. Besides this, you can also use it so that if there is an excessive passcode failure, your device will be temporarily disabled to save your data from being compromised.

Install only trusted File-Sharing Applications

Some software’s are designed to share or trade your data with other phones or devices using an internet connection. Such applications can have uninterrupted access to all the files on your phone without your knowledge. Sharing data through these applications is subject to malware, hacking, and loss of sensitive information. Therefore make sure to share files through hardline connections only or use only trusted apps that are HIPAA compliant file-sharing platforms.

Therefore, you should pay close attention to the software that has permission to access your data. If you don’t see the need for an application or find it suspicious, disabling or uninstalling such applications reduces your risk of leaking personal information.

Use a Firewall

You can intercept all the unnecessary incoming and outgoing attempts by simply introducing a personal firewall to your connection. It can block any malicious attacks and only allows connections that fulfill the set criteria. For healthcare businesses, just a simple firewall on your system won’t work rather work building remote management of firewall policies into the devices themselves. Along with firewall activity logging and disabling unnecessary non-healthcare IT ports.

If your device has a built-in firewall, you should activate it as soon as possible, and if you are having trouble finding it, you can always find a solution on the internet. But in case it doesn’t, you can also download third-party software that can do this job.

Using Security Software

Security software is designed to protect your healthcare device from any malicious software or files; this includes viruses, malware, and spam. Doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals use tablets for patient info all the time. You can increase the security level of your device by installing good security software such as PC doctor and mdsguard and keeping it up to date.

This type of software comes in various forms, each having its designated role, such as anti-theft, anti-virus, anti-malware, firewall solutions, etc.

Keep Your Security Software Up to Date

Security risks and threats such as viruses and malware are changing their codes hastily. To keep up with these changes, keep all of your security software up to date so that they are ready to tackle any threat that comes their way.

Research Mobile Applications Before Downloading

There is a plethora of excellent health apps and technology available today. Third-party apps, on the other hand, come with third-party code flaws. When you integrate that product into your system, the entire network is put in danger. Ascertain that the app’s security meets FDA and HIPPA requirements. Any mobile application has the capability of compromising your data to the wrong hands. They can copy your contacts, get information about your address, passwords, or any other private data without you ever knowing about it.

Therefore, whenever you download an application for your phone, make sure that you read all the specifications and required permissions first. You can install the application only after you completely understand it. Also, TEST TEST TEST. Avoid having to respond to breaches and device failures in the field by detecting security flaws during development and testing.

Maintain Physical Control

Another method to secure your data is to remain in physical control of your device at all times. A small and portable mobile phone has a greater risk of being lost or stolen, which can easily result in your data being compromised in the wrong hands.

On the other hand, not letting other people use your device, locking your device when not in use, and physically securing it can exponentially increase your security and save your device from any external breach or tempering.

Secure Your Information on Public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi connections are the hub of public gathering, and this means that there are loads of data being transferred from mobile devices and the internet connection points. The problem with these connections is that they don’t have any security, and your data can be quickly interrupted while being transferred.=

It is why you should never opt to use them in the first place. But in case of an emergency where you don’t have any choice, you should have a VPN (Virtual Private Network) software on your phone that can encrypt all of your data while passing through the internet connection.

Conclusion

There’s no easy answer to this question. It’s always a good idea to be careful about what you share with others, but that doesn’t help when your device is already infected with malware.

To summarize, be smart when using health apps on your mobile device. Consider how much valuable information you may be inadvertently giving away. Also, remember to be proactive each time you download an app and read through the terms and conditions of service carefully.

When it comes to protecting your health information on a mobile device, the first thing you should do is evaluate what apps and data you need access to. You can also use various solutions that exist today such as Protected Harbor’s Protected phones with a secure remote wipe system and set strong passwords for every app that stores sensitive health information. Protected harbor with its experienced team and state of art technologies has been servicing the healthcare industry, contact us now to know how we do it.