In the healthcare sector, data sovereignty is a crucial issue for protecting patient privacy. Sovereignty is the concept that individuals and countries have the right to control the collection, use and the storage of their health data.
Indeed, sovereignty does not only imply data stored in a designated country, but above all subject to the laws of the country where they are stored.
How to differentiate sovereignty and data localization?
A company can have its data stored in France without all of it being subject to French regulations. The processing of its data can be carried out abroad whereas sovereignty precisely implies that this processing is carried out within French borders. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly differentiate between the physical location of the data and the regulations or taxation to which they are subject. Among other things, this helps reassure employees and customers about who has access to their data, how it is used and for what purposes.
Why is health data sovereignty crucial?
For healthcare establishments, ensuring the sovereignty of their data is more than necessary, for several reasons. Privacy protection, security and data control, but also R&D innovation. To ensure the sovereignty of patient health data, it is important to understand certain technical and organizational measures.
First, the establishment of a secure environment. For this, it is advisable to use secure servers and a sovereign cloud. This is explained by :
- Dedicated servers: host its data in certified data centers.
- Sovereign Cloud: choose sovereign solutions that ensure that stored data complies with local laws.
To go even further, implement secure access and communications, particularly for professional messaging: multi-factor authentication (MFA), identity and access management (IAM), data encryption or even virtual private networks ( VPN).
How can you reassure employees about the protection of your establishment’s data?
So that employees, as well as patients, are reassured about the processing of their health data, it is important to analyze the following points.
- Anti-phishing solutions : Use email filtering solutions to block phishing and spear-phishing attempts. Solutions that can scan and analyze attachments to verify their contents and detect malware and other threats.
- Regular update : To fill vulnerabilities and counter zero-day vulnerabilities.
- Incident response : Develop incident response plans to respond quickly and effectively in the event of a data compromise.
- Training programs : Develop and implement regular training programs for staff on data security best practices. Organize attack simulations (phishing, ransomware) to raise staff awareness of threats and train them to react correctly.
- Writing clear policies : Establish clear and accessible security policies that detail the procedures to follow to protect health data.
The future of healthcare facilities presents challenges. With a combination of phishing awareness and advanced technologies (anti-phishing, anti-spearphishing, anti-malware and anti-ransomware), hospitals can strengthen their security and guard against emerging threats. It is essential to put these technical and organizational measures in place to ensure the security and confidentiality of patient health information.
A column by Rebeca Rocha, AltoSpam
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