SafeConsole

Benefits

• Complete control of over 100,000 portable memory drives
• Reduced cost and complexity of device portfolio management
• Ease of use encouraging rapid adoption by non-technical users
• Increased culture of confidentiality across 100 NHS Trusts

The NHS' impact on the social and political lives of UK citizens is immense. While it may be a cliché, with such influence comes great responsibility. And nowhere is this more pertinent than in the management of patient data for the UK's entire population. Such protection is not only a legal and regulatory requirement, but a moral imperative.

Data Dilemma

It would be great to be able to simply store this data away behind complex, multi-million pound security systems. To lock it down and deny access. But this, of course, is simply not an option.

In common with every business across the globe, from local retailers to international financial giants, customer data is the lifeblood of any enterprise and must be put to work every single day. For the NHS, this means providing critical patient records to healthcare professionals on-demand, while guaranteeing the highest level of information integrity. No small task indeed.

Mobile Challenge

With such huge numbers of staff, from hospital-based doctors and physiotherapists to mobile paramedics and remote General Practitioners, assuring secure access is critical. This is a well documented challenge and one in which the NHS has spent £millions successfully addressing over the years.

However, the need to mobilise information in line with new working practices and the corresponding proliferation of mobile devices in today's NHS is changing the nature of the challenge. Lost laptops and misplaced USB memory sticks full of sensitive patient data are now very real concerns.

Disappearing Data

The theft of six laptops from the St George's Healthcare NHS Trust containing information on 20,000 patients back in 2008 is a clear example. More recently, in July 2009, a laptop containing the personal and medical details of 2000 urology patients disappeared from a locked office at Broomfield Hospital in the UK. Indeed, over the past two months alone there have been data losses reported in East Cheshire NHS Trust and Imperial College NHS Trust in London.

NHS Take Action

So, in an effort to secure confidential data while delivering fast data access for mobile health professionals, the NHS began an in-depth procurement programme that led to the selection of BlockMaster – and the deployment of 100,000 of its SafeStick USB flash drives right across the Health Service network.

According to Robert Howorth, Senior Technical Architect, West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust: "The security of patient data is of paramount importance to us so we needed a device that could provide complete protection against theft or loss. We also wanted the peace of mind that devices could be centrally managed, locking down and wiping data should a device be compromised."

And that is just what they got. Password protected and featuring military grade encryption, SafeStick assures health professionals have complete information integrity on the move. Crucially, the NHS is also using BlockMaster's SafeConsole management tool. This allows hospital administrators to gain complete visibility and control of their SafeStick portfolio – to remotely track, manage and enforce acceptable use policy for every single drive, anywhere in the county.

Flexibility as Standard

The demand for information mobility across the NHS is as varied as its departments. For example, West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust is one of over 100 hospitals utilising BlockMaster. Here, SafeStick is being used throughout the hospital, from the administrative centres to the wards. And in this latter scenario SafeStick's robust design allows the stick to be dropped, stepped on or even completely immersed in water – making it a favourite of nurses and doctors on shift. Crucially, its time controlled 'locking' mechanism means patient confidentially is assured – even in the busiest and most public of places.

Quick and Easy

Howorth from West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust: "SafeConsole and SafeSticks are so simple to use, which increases adoption and provides reassurance that data is protected no matter where it is."

Data Control

Because each SafeStick is assigned to a specific user (through SafeConsole), incidence of lost devices are infrequent. A recent study from BlockMaster has shown that linking the device to the user encourages a much greater understanding of security and fosters a sense of increased responsibility. The results are impressive: loss rates for unsecured devices can run at up to 66% while SafeStick loss rates can be as low as 5%.

And there's a 'cost upside' too. By enabling complete lifecycle management, SafeConsole allows sticks to be reset and reassigned, while lost and forgotten passwords can be changed while the devices are 'in the field'. This significantly increases convenience and assures high volumes of devices can be managed simply and cost effectively.

A win-win for patients, staff and IT personal across more than 100 NHS hospitals and emergency services.

Benefits

• User-friendly focus
• Easy managing of the drives thanks to the package solution
• Top of the line security

FLEXIBILITY WITHOUT COMPROMISING SECURITY

The University needed a solution that allowed data to be transported freely, giving the users the highest amount of working flexibility. There is no rooom for compromising the security, as the staff handles information of great importance to the entire University. The great amount of users also called for a reliable managing system, to make sure that all the drives could be administrated in a time-efficient (and thus money saving) way.

THE RIGHT PARTNER

It was the outstanding level of safety combined with the extraordinary usability that made the choice fall on BlockMaster. Brian Henderson, Head of Service Delivery, Aberdeen University comments: “We looked at many providers in the security market to protect portable information, but found their solutions to be cumbersome and expensive. Following thorough product testing we were impressed with the military graded encryption and focus on ease-of-use, which meant that BlockMaster was the right partner for us.”

AN INVALUABLE SOLUTION

The University has deployed both SafeSticks (portable, hardware-encrypted USB drives) and SafeConsole (BlockMaster’s web based management software) through Softek, a leading IT Security, Storage and Archiving Solutions Distributor and Softbox, specialists in the independent and value added provision of Information Assurance solutions, services and products.

It’s a complete package, which has proven to be exactly what was needed.

Henderson: “The SafeStick and SafeConsole have been invaluable for us. We recently had a member of staff forget their password and in a normal situation they would have just reached for a new device, however, within five minutes we reset the SafeStick and restored all the data on it, saving us so much time and hassle.”

LEADING THE WAY

James Baker, Senior Account Manager, Softek: ”It’s great to see the University of Aberdeen leading the way with the adoption of secure USBs and we hope this sets the tone for other Universities to be proactive with portable device security.”

Adoption of the SafeSticks has gone so well that the University is currently looking at deploying 8GB and 24GB drives to enable staff to store bigger files and rich media content, such as images and videos.

The perfect end result for the University of Aberdeen, making everyday work both safer and easier!

Benefits

• Ease of use encouraging rapid adoption by non-technical users
• A convenient package, making management and deployment simple
• Safety no matter where the drive is

The Westland Midlands Ambulance Service faced the risk of information being compromised, due to the real threat of data loss. In addition, they had no way of tracking the devices given to staff, making remote working an impossible task to manage from an IT perspective. It was crucial to take precautions and procedures to combat the problem.

On the Move

Tony Carne, Head of ICT at the Service: "We needed a device which could be easily deployed, managed and most importantly, would provide complete protection against loss or theft."

Originally drawn to BlockMaster thanks to its password recovery software and simplicity of the SafeConsole, competition was immediately ruled out after a one-to-one demonstration. "There was no comparison. The speed, ease of use and convenience of the entire package made the decision for us."

Quick and Easy

Ease of use and convenience is critical when encouraging mass adoption of a new technology. "Our users are predominantly non-technical healthcare professionals. Enforcing usage of a complex and slow technology will only ever have one result… a lack of mass adoption. Staff would simply ignore it and continue to use their own personal memory sticks or laptops – both of which lack the protection needed for us to remain secure," says Carne.

Security as Standard

The powerful SafeStick / SafeConsole combined solution is also encouraging a culture of confidentiality. At the West Midlands Ambulance Service, for example, all other forms of removable storage have been outlawed, irrespective of the content being downloaded.

So whether staff are transferring public presentations or downloaded music files, they are using SafeStick. This exclusive use of the BlockMaster devices not only ensures everything single piece of data is secured, but, thanks to inbuilt malware and anti-virus software, corporate systems are also protected from malicious code as data moves from computer to computer.

Protection No Matter What

The West Midlands Trust joins over 100 UK emergency services and NHS organisations, including the West Suffolk NHS Hospital Trust and the Aintree University Hospital NHS Trust, which are using the combination of SafeStick and SafeConsole to protect their portable data.

SafeStick and SafeConsole to protect their portable data.

”The SafeSticks have provided the reassurance that our data is protected no matter where or who it is with," says Carne.

Daniel Östner, CEO at BlockMaster comments: “With the public sector being one of the hardest hit sectors for data loss, it is great to see that the Ambulance Service is setting the benchmark with information security. Hopefully over the coming months we will see more companies being proactive with data protection, however we believe it is our role to help organisations achieve this by making solutions that have the highest grade security but are also easy-to-use.”

A perfect match – The Westland Midlands Trust saves the citizens, and in turns BlockMaster keeps them safe!