When it comes to recording medical data, it is imperative that it is kept correctly and, most importantly, securely. Due to the sensitive nature of medical data, which includes intimate and private personal information, medical facilities must use advanced IT systems to ensure the protection of their patients and staff.
How is personal information protected?
The key to ensuring that personal information is protected is by utilising database systems that have limited exposure to the internet. There are instances where databases must be available using internet-based structures like portals for easy access by professionals who have received consent to see and use the data for patient care or research. In these instances, all traffic to and from web servers must be encrypted to eliminate eavesdropping. The web server needs to be coded without bugs and have the correct access control enforced on the database itself.
How are attacks by cybercriminals managed?
The threat of cybercriminals only increases year on year. There are several ways to ensure that sensitive data is secure from cybercriminals. One method of preventing hackers from gaining access to your servers that is particularly relevant in 2022 is geo-blocking. Blocking IP addresses by country, for example, would stop selected countries from being able to access your web servers.
While this method will not suit all businesses, it is a really effective way of protecting your servers from countries that you know should never be trying to access your servers.
How do mobile medical practices manage data security?
With the introduction of mobile medical practices, many may be concerned that their data may not be as safe as if they attended a standard, larger facility.
At Xenex, we are happy to report that our IT and phone services have been created with a cloud-based system in mind. This has allowed us to ensure that these systems are completely geared towards being mobile with no security implications at all.
System security is at the forefront of our planning and design. Due to this, remote or mobile access is gained via secure methods and does not pose a large risk to IT security.
What other things does Xenex do to ensure patient data security for medical centres?
Xenex is now an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This allows us to provide Internet and private Layer 2 communication links into our cloud services. Layer 2 communication links mean that the traffic to the servers traverses private, non-internet-facing links from the client site to the Xenex cloud. Then, if required, traffic can be routed out to the Internet in a controlled and closely monitored way. This ensures that public exposure to medical servers is kept to an absolute minimum and open ports and public inbound traffic to servers are limited.
Switching to a provider that specialises in medical IT services means switching to a safer, more secure, and more direct IT environment. Be in touch with us today for a free audit.