Healthcare organisations seek safety in the Cloud
A global cyberattack last year hit 150 countries and more than 300,000 computers were infected by “WannaCry”.
It was probably one of the most widespread and damaging examples of hacking and malware experienced globally.
Last year also saw a virus attack the computer system of one of Melbourne’s largest hospital networks causing chaos for staff and patients.
In response, Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services shortlisted 72 cyber security controls for the state’s health services.
This ransomware attack on the healthcare sector was the reason many healthcare organisations turned to the Cloud as a disaster recovery and backup safety option to safeguard against any future attacks.
Disaster recovery
Disaster recovery needs to be a key consideration in any health organisation. The impact of not having one in place can be catastrophic to the operation of the business.
It’s why Allocate’s SaaS suite includes all disaster recovery tools and removes all the internal technical effort to minimise your risk of attack.
There are six components to the Allocate SaaS Disaster Recovery Plan:
- Tested Disaster Recovery Plan
- OS and DBMS Compatibility
- Managed Maintenance Plan
- Strong System Monitoring
- Supportability
- Environment Consistency
Upgrading to the Cloud
Catastrophic events like “WannaCry” and the ransomware attack on the Victorian healthcare sector engender real fear in organisations holding large amounts of sensitive personal data, like hospitals and healthcare agencies.
Lapses in data security are often down to human error – like not upgrading software, not having a disaster recovery plan, or allowing disaster recovery systems to lapse.
Or, as recent data from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse show, the basic actions of people accidentally throwing records into the garbage or sending them to the wrong location or person.
One of the most common questions we get asked by health IT managers looking to move from an on-premise IT system to Cloud based hosting is whether it’s secure.
The answer is yes, absolutely.
Information hosted on the Cloud is better protected than on an any in-house on-premise server. Cloud based solutions are increasingly being adopted by healthcare organisations as a way to improve data security, increase system reliability and reduce costs.
HIMSS Analytics’ latest survey of Cloud computing adoption in healthcare provider organisations found that 83% of IT executives report using Cloud services today, with SaaS-based applications being the most popular (66.9%).
Cloud security of data
Allocate Cloud is a major part of the Allocate SaaS suite of software. It removes reliance on internal infrastructure and the associated costs, while securing data from the constant threat of cyberattacks.
One area of potential risk to healthcare organisations is when staff have remote access to on-premise servers. Healthcare employees need to have up to date access to their rosters and the ability to enter leave and availability details, anywhere anytime. However this can uncover security holes in organisations’ firewalls and externally facing web services for on-premise installations, which can pose a significant security threat.
That’s why Allocate has included a range of secure mobile functionality within its product suite. Allocate software and SaaS infrastructure is both secure and verified through externally audited penetration tests.
Allocate SaaS includes major upgrades each year where our experts manage the process end-to-end. We’ve worked closely with our healthcare customers to provide comprehensive workforce management solutions, and to deliver frequent software updates with minimal downtime and security upgrades.
Allocate SaaS is specifically designed to meet the needs of Australian public and private healthcare organisations.
The important part to our Allocate Cloud service is that our data centres are located within Australia in highly secured facilities. This means you can easily comply with Australian Privacy Principles giving you piece of mind on your data security.
Want to know more about our Cloud based solutions for healthcare organisations?
Contact us to discuss your particular needs or to book a demo.
For more information about Allocate solutions, visit our Resource Centre
