Gazzang Launches zNcrypt for Health Care™, Providing Endpoint Security for Vulnerable Patient Data

Transparent Data Encryption, Secure Key Management and Access Controls Provide Last Line of Defense for Protected Health Information

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than 70 percent of reported health care breaches – totaling 15.6 million health records – are due to lost, stolen or improperly disposed devices¹, a staggering fact as more medical organizations embrace the efficiencies of mobile computing. Unprotected regulatory data left on servers, notebooks, USB drives, tablets and smart phones can lead to millions in fines and permanently damage a health care provider’s reputation.

“Data encryption and advanced key management render a compromised disk useless to a data thief, because the information is indecipherable. Encryption also provides health care organizations with 'safe harbor,' protecting them from the expensive and often embarrassing disclosure required under the HITECH Act.”

Today Gazzang announced zNcrypt for Health Care™, a data encryption and key management solution that secures electronic protected health information (ePHI) and enables hospitals, clinics, insurance providers and other organizations that handle sensitive patient data to maintain HIPAA compliance.

“We are pulling in mountains of survey data from patients, doctors and other hospitals, as well as internal data including patient ID numbers and in some cases DICOM files, all used to enhance patient care,” said Michael Hess, senior technologist, University of Michigan. “While only some of this data falls under HIPAA regulations, we’ve taken security a step further, making it a best practice to encrypt all our data at rest. Gazzang zNcrypt makes this easy, delivering an amazing amount of flexibility and performance right out of the box.”

Gazzang zNcrypt for Health Care protects ePHI by transparently encrypting and securing data written to disk. Because the data is encrypted at the file system level, organizations do not have to modify their databases or applications and data performance and availability are maintained. The solution includes robust key management and process-based access controls that store the keys separate from the encrypted data and prevent unauthorized access. Gazzang zNcrypt can be deployed either in the cloud or on-premises.

“Stories about hacking collectives and social engineering command most of the headlines, but when it comes to data breaches in the health care industry, the majority of cases involving data loss and non-compliance are due to lost or stolen of hardware,” said David Tishgart, director of product marketing at Gazzang. “Data encryption and advanced key management render a compromised disk useless to a data thief, because the information is indecipherable. Encryption also provides health care organizations with 'safe harbor,' protecting them from the expensive and often embarrassing disclosure required under the HITECH Act.”

Gazzang is hosting a webinar with the University of Michigan on Oct. 11, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. ET. Click Securing Sensitive Patient Data to register.

Additional Resources
Achieving HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA-HITECH Compliance Guide
Hartford HealthCare case study

About Gazzang

Gazzang provides data security solutions and operational diagnostics that help enterprises protect sensitive information and maintain performance in cloud environments. The company has over 200 customers across multiple industries including SaaS providers, financial services, technology, health care and public sector organizations. Gazzang is backed by Austin Ventures and Silver Creek Ventures. For more information, visit www.gazzang.com.

¹ http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/breachnotificationrule/breachtool.html