IT security in the healthcare sector: please shield yourself for once

Digitalisation in the healthcare sector is picking up speed: Legal requirements and increased awareness of the dangers of cyberattacks are putting the topic of IT security on the agenda for medical facilities. Securepoint partner SL.IS offers complete solutions for healthcare providers based on the KBV IT security guidelines.

If ransomware renders medical devices or systems unusable or health-related data is manipulated, people can be directly harmed. In order to reliably protect personal data and critical systems, IT infrastructures in the healthcare sector must therefore fulfil special requirements. Malte Treutner, one of the managing directors of SL.IS, sees a need to catch up here. ‘For a long time, providers in the healthcare sector were left to their own devices. They were sold hardware by IT service providers and then left without support. Our offering is more focussed on the needs of the users.’

In future, doctors' letters and certificates of incapacity for work, for example, can be sent electronically from the practice under the name KIM (communication in healthcare). The telematics infrastructure (TI) will be used for this purpose, which is intended to network all those involved in the healthcare system. In this way, the exchange between doctors, pharmacies, health insurance companies and other stakeholders is simplified and secure. However, in order to be able to participate in the procedures, the practice IT must also be secure.

On the website sichere-praxis-it.de, SL.IS has summarised its services for practices and other medical facilities and service providers and states: ‘It is not the job of doctors to get the IT in their practice up to scratch. Their focus is on the care of their patients.’ This is why SL.IS offers packages for IT protection on a monthly basis - including service and scalability.

‘The aim is the sustainable development and operation of IT security structures so that digital services can be provided reliably,’ says Malte Treutner. ‘Digitalisation has had little practical use in the healthcare sector to date and has therefore barely got off the ground. That is now changing. Electronic services in the healthcare sector will continue to grow.’

The ‘Secure Practice IT’ team fulfils the requirements of the KBV/KZBV IT security guidelines for IT service providers. SL.IS is also a member of the IT security association TeleTrusT. The solutions used are therefore based on ‘IT security made in Germany’: SL.IS uses Securepoint solutions for firewalls, antivirus software and VPN connections.

‘As a managed service provider, we work independently of hardware and software manufacturers in order to be able to offer our customers the right solution in each case. Aside from all ethical obligations, patient data also requires a particularly high level of protection. This also involves legal issues. As a German manufacturer, Securepoint stands for a high level of data protection compliance and guarantees that its self-developed solutions are free of backdoors,’ explains Managing Director Treutner.

SL.IS offers more than just IT security. Services relating to the support, monitoring and documentation of practice IT as well as consulting and training programmes on basic IT knowledge and current topics complete the offering. SL.IS is currently seeking CME certification for its training programmes.