One-Third of Healthcare Entities Store Sensitive Data in the Cloud But Lack Resources to Protect It

Netwrix, a vendor of information security and governance software, has released findings of its global 2019 Netwrix Cloud Data Security Reportfor the healthcare industry. An infographic provides an industry perspective of the data that healthcare organizations store in the cloud, the state of their cloud data security and their plans for using cloud technology. 
 
The 2019 Netwrix Cloud Data Security Report revealed that 32 percent of healthcare organizations store a wide range of sensitive data in the cloud, including healthcare data and personally identifiable information (PII) of customers and employees. In addition, the number of those who are ready to adopt Cloud-First approach has increased by 31 percent since 2018, and the number considering becoming 100 percent cloud-based has grown by 12 percent. Unfortunately, their IT teams might not have enough resources to properly protect this sensitive data in the cloud, as 85 percent of them did not see an increase in their cloud security budgets in 2019.
 
Other findings revealed by the research and shown in the infographic include:

• Twenty-six percent of healthcare organizations had at least one security incident in the cloud during the past 12 months. These organizations have two things in common: None of them classified all the data they stored in the cloud, and all of them store all their sensitive data in the cloud.
• The majority of IT teams at healthcare organizations plan to strengthen data security in the cloud by encrypting data (70 percent) and monitoring activities around data (50 percent). However, one third of them do not receive any financial support from their management, which makes it more difficult for them to improve security in the cloud. 
• Eighteen percent of healthcare organizations would consider moving their data from the cloud back on premises. Their main reasons include security concerns (56 percent), reliability and performance issues (22 percent), and high costs (22 percent) for the cloud. If they decide to make this move, they will start by migrating healthcare data (33 percent), customer data (33 percent) and employee data (11 percent). 

 
“Prioritizing security efforts is the key to ensuring data security in the cloud, especially if budgets are tight, as is common at healthcare organizations. When organizations know exactly what data they have in the cloud and have classified it according to its value and level of sensitivity, they are in a better position to choose appropriate controls within their budgetary constraints and protect sensitive data more effectively,” said Steve Dickson, CEO of Netwrix.
 
“By 2022, more than 30 percent of the hospital data centers will be based in the cloud. Healthcare systems have been skeptical about adoption of cloud, but cost pressures and the need to reduce capital expenditure have been changing that mindset. After enduring several high-profile breaches and realizing the maturity of various cloud providers (both in expertise and scalability), healthcare systems are finally less skeptical than they used to be about the cloud.” — Gartner, “Forecast Overview: Healthcare Provider Market, Worldwide, 2018,” by Anurag Gupta, July 13, 2018.
 
Learn more about the findings of the 2019 Netwrix Cloud Data Security Report for healthcare industry here.
 
Netwrix is a software company that enables information security and governance professionals to reclaim control over sensitive, regulated and business-critical data, regardless of where it resides. Over 10,000 organizations worldwide rely on Netwrix solutions to secure sensitive data, realize the full business value of enterprise content, pass compliance audits with less effort and expense, and increase the productivity of IT teams and knowledge workers. Founded in 2006, Netwrix has earned more than 150 industry awards and been named to both the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 lists of the fastest growing companies in the United States.