Healthcare data is among the most sensitive and vital information stored in the digital world.  Data security remains a primary concern when switching or migrating to the cloud in almost every industry. Businesses need to realize that data security extends beyond compliance. If privacy and security measures are implemented on time, sensitive information is kept safe. When sensitive data, such as healthcare data, is at risk, special care must be taken. You must use cloud consulting services to utilize the cloud for your healthcare business and effectively secure all the essential data. 

How Healthcare Data Is Secured In the Cloud?

Securing healthcare data in the cloud involves multiple steps. Because you have shared responsibilities with the cloud platform for ensuring your application and data security, you should incorporate the following ways into your cloud security capabilities to successfully protect health data: encryption, pseudonymization, and anonymization. The most successful health data security strategy is determined by how the data is stored, shared, and evaluated. Let’s look into these techniques:

  • Encryption

Encryption technology uses complex algorithms to protect data by transforming it into an unreadable format. Only authorized individuals with the key can decode and return the data to a readable format. Keys are only shared with trusted parties after their identities have been verified via multi-factor authentication. 

  • Pseudonymization

Pseudonymization is a strategy for protecting sensitive data that replaces identifying information with a pseudonym or alias. This method is reversible so that the original data can be re-identified. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) highly recommends this strategy to businesses for protecting personal data.

  • Data Anonymization

Data anonymization protects sensitive information by eliminating or encrypting identifiers that link individuals to stored data. It allows the Personal Indentifiers Information ( PIIs ) such as names and addresses while remaining anonymous.

How to Keep Your Healthcare Sensitive Data Safe?

Healthcare-sensitive data is highly confidential and requires special attention to ensure its security.  Below are some practices that should be followed to keep your healthcare data safe. 

  • HIPAA Compliance and Security Rules

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Compliance defines the operating principles of healthcare providers in the United States, whereas GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) defines how global operations should be conducted to be compliant. So, healthcare providers and business partners must be up to date on the current requirements and select vendors and business associates accordingly. 

  • Restrict Access to Data and Applications

Implementing access restrictions provides quick protection for healthcare data. Access control limits access to information or programs to only authorized users, allowing healthcare providers to do their work without worrying about data breaches. One can implement access controls and then use multi-factor authentication, one of the best and preferred techniques to enable access limits. Users must authenticate that they can access the information and apps using two or more validation procedures.

  • Conduct Regular Risk Assessment

Similar to how an audit trail serves to discover and track changes in a document, regular risk assessments help to detect vulnerabilities or flaws in a healthcare organization’s security systems. It also aids in finding weaknesses in the security postures of vendors and business associates. If risk assessments are performed on a regular basis, it is possible to proactively detect and manage potential risks that could lead to costly data breaches, reputation harm, and regulatory penalties.

  • Partner with Compliant Solution Providers

Many healthcare practitioners use digital methods to provide the best healthcare services possible. As a result, the need for digital solution providers is increasing. However, with the increasing number of data breaches, a thorough review of these solution providers is one of the most essential security procedures healthcare businesses must implement. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule has strengthened prior requirements and provided specific definitions to improve confidentiality and security in data sharing with business partners.

Conclusion

Securing healthcare data on the cloud is challenging and essential, necessitating a thorough understanding of security policies, technologies, and best practices. Healthcare organizations can protect sensitive patient data by employing strong encryption, access management, containerization, monitoring, and DevSecOps methods. A reliable cloud consulting company can help you protect sensitive data and store it safely on secure servers. Securing sensitive data is crucial and you must take all the possible precautions.