25% of healthcare organizations using public cloud do not encrypt data

A HyTrust survey of 51 healthcare and biotech organizations found that 25 percent of those organizations using the public cloud do not encrypt their data.

The survey also found that 63 percent of healthcare organizations say they intend to use multiple cloud vendors.

What is troubling, is that 38 percent of organizations that have data deployed in a multi-cloud environment that included Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Azure are not using any form of encryption. This vulnerability comes as 82 percent of healthcare organizations believe security is their top concern, followed by cost.

“Multi-cloud adoption continues to gain momentum among leading healthcare organizations,” said Eric Chiu, co-founder and president, HyTrust. “For these care delivery organizations, choosing a flexible cloud security solution that is effective across multiple cloud environments is not only critical to securing patient data, but to remaining HIPAA compliant.”

Key survey findings include:

• 63 percent of healthcare organizations are currently using the public cloud
• 25 percent of healthcare organizations using the public cloud are not encrypting their data
• 63 percent of healthcare IT decision makers intend to use multiple cloud vendors