TECH TALK: BILL MAGEE says solutions are in place to take pressure off the health service
Digital health of an organisation is critical especially to an under-pressure NHS facing an uncertain winter. It calls for a solution for business continuity that is based on robust control with tight data back-up and recovery at all times, especially as the NHS is tasked with the safe handling of sensitive and private patient records.
The UK Government is holding talks with data centre operators about the dangers posed by a national energy blackout.
The NHS already operates in a cyber world full of costly online infections, misuse, leaks and ransomware attacks. The British Medical Journal reports “hundreds of patient data breaches are left unpunished”. It cites drug companies, National Health Service commissioners and universities guilty of breaching data-sharing agreements.
Website techmonitor.ai warns of likely big fines and criminal proceedings following online incidents. One involves an English NHS trust patient data breach with details passed to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
In this particular case an unencrypted memory stick sent to an employee contained personal data of “tens of thousands” of people including medical procedures, names, addresses and phone numbers.
NHS Scotland and some other trusts elsewhere in Britain are leaving nothing to chance. They’ve chosen the Barracuda Microsoft Cloud-to-Cloud Backup cost-effective, scalable, easy-to-use “cloud-native” solution.
Barracuda Networks liaise closely with the software giant to provide its system. We’re talking a million miles away from traditional business continuity services that tended to cover the likes of fire and flood.
in turn, Capito works closely with Barracuda which has promoted the Livingston-based IT services and solutions expert to “Premier Partner” status. It’s the highest classification possible with fewer than five reaching the standard in the whole of the UK.
The ongoing NHS contract work involves cyber cover for medical records, financial data, HR records and other information in compliance with new NHS guidelines. A powerful, intuitive browser-based management console and backups monitor makes it easy to find what the user is looking for.
Everything is stored on Microsoft 365 data, for as long as needed, coupled with Barracuda’s award-winning 24/7 technical support a phone call away. Cloud Storage is SOC Type-II audited and undergoes annual third-party audits.
Storage and retention is unlimited with all data encrypted both in transit and at rest. It ensures complete, granular protection of data with point-in-time retrieval and customisable or on-demand backup.
Also, in a process known as “deduplication and compression” this helps minimise the number of backup windows and optimises storage efficiency.
Management is intuitive with the system’s cloud control user interface. Visibility is thorough and complete with the reporting of source backup status and storage statistics.
An audit log and email alerts keep the user informed of details of every action. Optimizing security, is, of course, high up on the list. Software as a Service (SaaS) ensures no software or hardware is required to be managed.
Role-based access controls let the user limit access to sensitive medical data to only those specific individuals who need it. Broader access is allowed to less sensitive data types.
Critically for the NHS, also other cross-sectoral organisations, there is tight control, at all times, of budgets and costs control, releasing cash to pay for those ever-soaring energy bills.
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