Google Drive Hipaa Secure
Many EMR/EHR systems offer integration with Google’s Calendar for scheduling. The calendar is also well integrated into other G Suite applications like Gmail, Drive, Contacts, Sites and Hangouts. Cloud File Storage. G Suite includes Google Drive, a tool to easily store, sync and share files. Google Apps customers who are subject to HIPAA and wish to use Google Apps with PHI must sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with Google. Administrators for Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government domains can request a BAA before using Google services with PHI. Google offers a BAA covering Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive. The purpose of this post is to determine if Google Drive offers HIPAA compliance or not. SEE ALSO: HIPAA Breaches and Cloud Providers. About Google Drive. Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service that launched in 2012. Users can use Google Drive to upload, sync and share files in the cloud.
As computer hard drives are getting overloaded with information, behavioral professionals are beginning to wonder which companies to trust with their client/patient information. Many data storage companies have developed robust services that clearly identify their status with regard to HIPAA compliance. This article then, is about several such companies, and a couple more who fail to pass muster.While it is always possible to purchase an external hard drive to store your excess data, you may decide that cloud storage affords you many advantages, including the ability to access your data anywhere, anytime and from any device. Another big advantage to cloud storage with a proper service is their ability to help you protect your information from theft, corruption and inaccessibility. They should also offer you the legal protections of Business Associate’s Agreements (BAA) to safeguard “Protected Health Information” (PHI) if you are a covered entity – and even if you are not.See my earlier blog posts about many states requiring privacy and security of client an patient data beyond those needed by HIPAA. Related HIPAA rules also require a few other processes that have to do with your policies and practices and not just the standards needed for technology you might purchase.
Companies that Claim to Offer HIPAA Compliant Services. – Amazon S3 is not HIPAA compliant out of the box, but Amazon AWS can be used to create HIPAA-compliant cloud storage.
Amazon gives you dedicated servers and a BAA, but you have to configure it yourself. This r is available for directions on how to create HIPAA-compliant information processing systems in the Cloud. The paper focuses on the sections: and, and how to encrypt and otherwise protect your data. – This service allows you to store and protect then restore a single file, a folder or all your backed up files from a web browser for free. There is an option to have a 128 GB flash drive FedEx’d to you or an external drive up to 3 TB for an additional fee.
You can also access your files with the Here is their page. Mac users will be happy to note that this software is accessible from Mac or IOs systems. – This service claims to meet the obligations required by HIPAA, HITECH, and the final HIPAA Omnibus ruling. They sign BAA addendums for customers who have an Enterprise or Elite account. As with some of the other services in this group, customers are responsible for configuring a Box in a HIPAA compliant manner and for enforcing policies in their organizations to meet HIPAA compliance. Details of. n – This service is available for businesses that need protection for unlimited computers and HIPAA Compliance.
– Uses security data centers in multiple locations and protected by armed security personnel. Having your data securely stored in multiple places eliminates the risk of catastrophic data loss due to natural disaster, theft or sabotage.
See their. – CrashPlan PRO boasts an easy-to-use desktop and uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption, one of the most robust encryption methods available. Files are encrypted before they leave your computer and then transferred to their servers using 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) protocol. – Egnyte’s “enterprise” product is for businesses seeking HIPAA compliance. They are willing to sign a BAA. – As of September 2013, Google Apps for Business allows a domain administrator to sign a BAA that covers Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Google Vault.
Being HIPAA-compliant isn’t as easy as opening any one of these accounts on any one of these services, but if your domain administrator can disable all other Google Services from the domain and make sure you keep appropriate password policies, etc, then Google Drive can be rendered HIPAA compliant for cloud storage. – Focusing especially on backup and disaster recovery, Symform is another enterprise cloud storage service that is willing to sign a BAA and claims to be HIPAA compliant. They provide several links to several whitepapers.What about DropBox and iCloud?. iCloud – Apple refuses to sign a BAA, so your information is not protected or compliant with your requirement by HIPAA in iCloud. This service might be useful for storing. Dropbox – Dropbox is not HIPAA compliant. A close reading of HIPAA will show that it requires all aspects of a PHI file — even the name, which can potentially hold identifying information — be encrypted and private.
Dropbox as a company has policies which render it non-compliant with HIPAA in a number of areas. For instance, DropBox keeps “metadata,” which includes the file name, rendering it insecure. HIPAA also requires audit controls, which DropBox does not offer.What Else?HIPAA also makes it clear that your obligations as a covered entity do not just stop at selecting an appropriate service. The HIPAA Omnibus Rule of January 2013 states that even with a signed BAA, the burden falls on you to secure your data, even when hosted at a HIPAA compliant cloud storage provider. You also must be in compliance with any local, state requirements that. Several states have such requirements, including California, Texas and other “consumer protection” states in the US. Many non-US countries have comparable requirements.These are the some of the processes that must be encrypted to standards defined by HIPAA in the US:.
How you upload data into your storage server(s) must be encrypted to HIPAA standards. While on the storage server, your data must be encrypted to HIPAA standards. How you remove data from the cloud must be encrypted to HIPAA standards. All data downloaded from the cloud must be encrypted to HIPAA standards.How can you go wrong?This is an area where what you don’t know can hurt you. HIPAA requires that you know what you are doing and that you conduct regular. The Office for Civil Rights and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT have released a free tool to help you assess this risk. See our TMHI blog post about this Ignorance is not a defense.Let’s say you store files on any one of the popular storage companies and arrange to receive email notification that your file has properly been transferred or stored.
If you receive that notice in your non-encrypted email box, you have created a vulnerability. Those security vulnerabilities are how you can inadvertently create HIPAA violations.As we teach in our Certificate training program, as the covered entity, you need to be in compliance with HIPAA on many fronts, including the services you buy, how you assess your risk, and the you develop. More Information?To see more information about video-based services and their HIPAA compliance, see these other TMHI posts:.If you know of other cloud storage services for health care professionals, please list them below. You comments and questions are always invited. Well there is a range of reason I find Logicworks Compliant Cloud Hosting useful.
Personally, I like Logicworks for the security they provide, the fact it allows me to meet HIPPA Compliance, and for storing and sharing data. They have been around for many of years so they have the reliability and security I was looking for as well. When you check out Logicworks I am sure you will find them a great pick as well for HIPPA compliant cloud hosting (www.logicworks.net/technology/compliance/hipaa-compliant-hosting ). Hi Marlene,Thanks for this informative article! I also wanted to call your attention to Sookasa , which enables HIPAA-compliant use of Dropbox. Sookasa preserves the native Dropbox interface, making it extremely easy to use, and encrypts data at the file-level, so sensitive PHI is protected on the cloud and on all connected devices.
It’s even safe if, say, a physician wanted to download something to his device. Sookasa also has a number of other compliance features, such as user and device blocking, audit trails, and more.Thanks,Chelsea.
The previous post by Scott brings an important point. It is very important that the component of HIPAA compliance is whether a BAA is in place among all the parties involved. Many services that advertise HIPAA, usually there is a caveat that unless you are an enterprise customer, they do not offer to enter into BAA, therefore if you are a small-time developer or a vendor, that can significantly limit your ability to claim the compliance to your own customers even if you are storing data on one of the services. ” Dropbox is not HIPAA compliant.
A close reading of HIPAA will show that it requires all aspects of a PHI file — even the name, which can potentially hold identifying information — be encrypted and private. Dropbox as a company has policies which render it non-compliant with HIPAA in a number of areas. For instance, DropBox keeps “metadata,” which includes the file name, rendering it insecure. HIPAA also requires audit controls, which DropBox does not offer.”I can’t comment about Dropbox, but I don’t think this assertion about filenames is correct. I don’t think HIPAA holds any requirements over data that doesn’t contain PHI; ergo if you don’t store PHI (or a code or derivative bit of information that could reasonably lead back to the disclosure of PHI) in fields and locations like filenames, this wouldn’t be an issue.I leave open the possibility that I could be wrong about this, but I’ve been studying the OCR guidance and the relevant sections in CFR and haven’t yet seen this requirement.
If I’m wrong, could you please point out the requirement with a citation to validate it? Very few services are actually HIPAA compliant, and those that are still have to be implemented appropriately. For most businesses, it is not practical to have onsite IT, versed in HIPAA law and security protocols, handle the proper setup and implementation of a compliant cloud environment. For most cases, your better off working with a company that will offer training, BAA, implementation, etc. Which specializes in HIPAA security as well.
You also want to look for a company that is US-based, in my opinion, since this is a US healthcare law and you need to be sure the company you work with will keep abreast of any changes. If you know the people at Atlantic.Net, please invite them to create a directory entry for themselves at. That directory is a free community service offered by Telehealth Institute, our sister non-profit. It provides free community services, including the Buyer’s Guide Directory for software and hardware and associated services of potential interest to the telehealth community. (Other HIPAA-compliant (compatible) companies are also invited to create their own profiles, too.)Professionals using these services are cautioned to do their own due diligence, as TBHI or TI are not staffed to keep on top of all tech companies at all times. If anyone wants to know how to pick a tech company, I’d suggest they purchase our 1-hour webinar that outlines 30 questions to consider before buying video conferencing services.
Many of those same questions can be used with almost any technology purchase. Click to see here for details of the.
Google Drive is a popular program that has been around for a number of years now, allowing for organized storing of Google Docs, photos, email attachments, etc. A powerful (and free) tool, Google Drive is a strong choice for storing and sharing information. While great for individuals, how does Google Drive work for larger businesses? For many businesses, industry compliance is a major concern that needs to be considered when choosing a medium for storing and sharing documents. Many wonder if using Google Drive for saving and sharing confidential information meets guidelines set by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and HIPAA.While it is possible to maintain compliance with organizations like the SEC and HIPAA using Google Drive, it becomes evident this was not Google Drive’s original intent, and trying to maintain compliance becomes tedious.Google is not set up to be automatically compliant.
Google Drive Hipaa Secure Download
Businesses must determine if they are governed by SEC and HIPAA policies individually and take steps to modify their Google Drive account from there. It is possible for businesses to start storing information on Google Drive in a way that is not in compliance with regulatory standards, and Google won’t catch it for you. Individuals and businesses must configure Google’s viewing and sharing features to make them confidential, so that only authorized individuals will have access to certain documents.Google Drive security offers some services that allow you to securely store confidential information, but in order to do this, Google requires the business to sign and fill out a Business Associate Agreement. This agreement will encompass all parts of the Google Platform, including Google Drive, Calendar, Gmail, Sites, and Apps.What does this mean for consumers?
It means that some businesses that deal with confidential information and use Google Drive to store it may be in compliance, but there is no guarantee. If they have filled out and forgotten about the Business Associate Agreement, this information could be passed back and forth to be viewed by unauthorized individuals.Why Is Security So Important?The SEC has placed certain laws in effect that help to protect individuals by forcing organizations that store personal information to meet certain standards. Businesses that obtain your personal information must follow these laws in order to ensure that you and other authorized personnel are the only ones who have permission to see the information.A good example of this is when you go in to visit the doctor.
Your doctor will keep track of your vitals, some of the questions you have, and anything new that might come up during the checkup. This information must be kept confidential. The doctor cannot go to their colleague and discuss what occurred unless they are transferring your file over for a second opinion. The nursing staff cannot sell your information to insurance companies to make some money on the side.
Only authorized personnel have access to this information. When a slip-up occurs, the offending business may be fined or individuals may be temporarily suspended.A Better ChoiceA better option to use if your business wishes to become SEC and HIPAA compliant is eFileCabinet. EFileCabinet was originally designed to meet all of the requirements for SEC, HIPAA, and FINRA privacy and can take the work out of figuring things out on your own.
Our support team is here to help all our customers set up SEC-compliant systems so you can serve your customers in the best way possible. This system is much easier to use, can keep all of the personal information you need to store secure, and with a helpful support staff around to be your guide, you can be well on the way to a happy relationship with eFileCabinet without worrying about following the lawsRole-Based SecuritiesIn eFileCabinet documents can be locked down and permissions given to only appropriate individuals and departments through role-based securities. When an employee is terminated, permissions can be immediately changed and the former employee locked out. No need to re-key cabinets and offices to protect your valuable data, or to go in manually to remove a Google account from the “can view or edit” on the Drive. Permissions can also be applied to individual documents within a cabinet or drawer for individuals or departments. They can be changed quickly and intuitively, with minimal notice, as the situation dictates.EncryptionAll of the information stored with eFileCabinet is protected with 256-bit encryption.
256-bit encryption is extremely secure, about 2,000 times more secure than the standard 128-bit encryption, which many banking websites use. We also use SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption, a security protocol which protects confidential information sent between a web client and a server.
EFileCabinet’s data centers are SAS (statement on auditing standards) 70 Type II certified, meaning that our network infrastructure and security has met rigorous safety and security standards. EFileCabinet’s commitment to data security also makes it very easy for users of our products to meet industry compliance standards set by organizations like HIPAA, FINRA, and the SEC.To learn more about how eFileCabinet can help you organization maintain compliance and preserve confidentiality, fill out the form on this page for a 15-minute demo.