Encryption in the healthcare industry

Healthcare is a global sector that continuously processes and transmits large volumes of vital information on a regular basis through a variety of channels and facilities. Due to the pandemic and growth in digitalization, healthcare data and practices have steadily adopted more electronic and automated formats. Every day, the amount of healthcare data transmitted and processed is calculated in terabytes. As a result, healthcare data has become the main focus for security breaches and cybercrime.

According to a Stanford University white paper, medical data is growing at a rate of 48% each year. Private information on patients, their health state, and insurance providers that circulate in a hospital or doctor's office fall under this category. The patients' sensitive information requires a high level of protection.

There have been plenty of high-profile data breaches in the healthcare industry over the past five years. Without getting into the nuance of each situation, the result has been hundreds of millions of patient records being compromised and potentially sold on the dark web. The Anthem incident in 2015 is just one example. .

The healthcare sector comprises not just hospitals and pharmacies, but also research centers and laboratories. All of them contain sensitive information on patients, medical reports, and data regarding medical research; for instance, Coronavirus studies and vaccines. As technology advances, cybercriminals become more sophisticated; sensitive information can fall into the wrong hands if it isn't adequately protected. Therefore, the need for encryption has become more prevalent in hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation facilities. Healthcare organizations must establish comprehensive security measures to safeguard data from growing numbers of threats in order to properly secure delicate information from hackers.

Since the global pandemic, the healthcare industry experienced a 51% increase in the total volume of records exposed. In the first half of 2021, data breaches grew further; with the healthcare sector remaining at the top of the most-breached industry list.

Healthcare companies cannot rely on basic security measures like firewalls and passwords to protect themselves from modern hackers and cyber-criminals. This issue will persist and continue to jeopardize countless lives until up-to-date security measures are adopted in the healthcare sector.

While encryption not only improves organizations’ cyber security, it also supports other elements such as aiding healthcare institutions by reducing costs on processes and system development. Healthcare employees may view encryption as an unnecessary hassle between their job and their patients, but it is in fact an exceptional long-term solution for everyone. Fortunately, AxCrypt is an encryption solution that is both easy to use and reliable.

The healthcare industry has particular challenges when it comes to maintaining the integrity and security of information. AxCrypt is designed to provide advanced encryption in a simplistic manner; suitable for a fast-paced and highly complex industry such as healthcare. AxCrypt provides AES 256 bit, the strongest encryption, and guarantees that risks are at bay without compromising the company's productivity.

Teamwork collaboration using Key sharing

AxCrypt allows secured files to be opened by other AxCrypt users with their own passwords. In this manner, healthcare workers can easily share medical information in a secure manner. For more info on the AxCrypt key, sharing check our key sharing tutorial on YouTube

Cloud security

AxCrypt automatically finds what Cloud Storage services are installed on the computer and creates an AxCrypt folder there. It will automatically secure all the files/documents on multiple cloud storage services such as Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, etc.

Master key

A master key is one of the significant features which enables business administrators to recover files of the business members. This eliminates the risk of losing access to critical files. Read more about AxCrypt master key feature here

GDPR and HIPAA compliant

AxCrypt ensures your organization stays compliant with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which concerns the protection of personal data, individual rights and sets the standard for sensitive patient data protection.