Mission-Critical Cloud Applications and Compliance

Cloud infrastructure is a critical component to millions of businesses. No longer are sensitive data and applications relegated to on-premises solutions. According to the Cloud Security Alliance, 69% of enterprises around the globe are rapidly moving mission-critical and sensitive data to the cloud.

With a massive migration, regulatory compliance has become part of the foundational focus for the modern enterprise. Data-sensitive industries such as healthcare and financials must continually be on the alert for non-compliant system behavior.

Moving data from an on-premises solution to the cloud forces an organization to re-examine compliance issues. How that data is kept so that it remains in conformance with current laws and industry regulations is a critical element.

Off-Premises and SaaS Solutions

Financial and healthcare organizations are opting for an off-premises alternative to their file and content needs. Shifting to off-premises can be a difficult choice for companies. However, if done right, off-premises is a highly secure and viable option for the enterprise. 

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The Benefits of Mission-Critical, Off-Premises File Servers | Long Island Tech Solutions Highlights

    • Cost-Effective: Less on-site hardware and personnel needed to maintain the equipment
    • Scalable: Pay only for what is needed
    • Anytime/Anywhere Access: A perfect solution for health and financial accounting personnel
    • Authentication and Encryption: Data is secure with encryption keys kept on-premises
    • Regular Backups, Software Patching
    • Virus, Spam, and Malware Protection
    • Managed by a Professional Third-Party

SaaS

Businesses of all sizes in the Long Island and Brooklyn area have come to rely on advanced IT firms similar to Li Tech Solutions. Managed SaaS offerings from Li Tech provide cutting-edge software delivery models. These financial and healthcare enterprise solutions are provided throughout the region.

Li Tech’s advanced software-on-demand and other similar services are offered with the help of Microsoft Azure, a world-leading, cloud-hosted enterprise. 

Regulatory-Compliant Cloud Service Providers | Stay Compliant with New York’s Best MSSP

Cyber stakes are high for every company. Keeping the intellectual property and mission-critical data safe from the constant barrage of cyberattacks takes a proactive approach.

Sensitive data and core applications drive the organization. Protecting this critical information requires affirmative and dynamic leadership.

Compliance for highly-regulated industries is a big target for cybercriminals because of the enormous payoffs they offer. 

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act set the foundation of financial compliance for cloud and on-premises solutions. The Act aims to safeguard sensitive financial data for its customers. Storing personal and financial information downstream has broad implications for Cloud Service Providers. 

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LI Tech cybersecurity experts expect more attacks due to the following conclusions:

  • More attacks on critical infrastructure are coming due to the widespread emergence of disparate remote networks.
  • Mission-critical breaches will expand because of hastily adjusted business mechanisms which leave wide security gaps for attackers.
  • New and more efficient email phishing attacks are growing. More mission-critical data is going into the attacker’s accounts.
  • Expect growth in state-sponsored attacks and industrial espionage. These attacks will concentrate on the sensitive data intellectual properties companies possess.
  • Machine learning and artificial intelligence are attractive targets to cybercriminals. AI and ML technologies are closely linked to business automation methods.
  • The growing development of ransomware is expanding in the financial sector. Attackers will continue to target high-profile victims.

Companies in the financial industry should be selective when choosing a provider. CSPs should have a variety of physical and administrative safeguards in place. Another feature to consider with a CSP is data encryption. The CSP should be using at least a 128 Blowfish algorithm. SSL, with symmetric cryptography, keeps customer data safe while in transit to the cloud. 

Anticipated Threats For Business

Companies in healthcare, finance, and similar industries not only have to prepare for the worst, but they must also find ways to maintain uptime. Enterprises must remain open throughout every cyberattack while providing seamless services to customers and staying fully compliant.

Businesses continue to explore solutions that reduce on-premises cost and complexity while providing additional features and benefits to clients. On- and off-premises solutions are plentiful; it is wise to take the time, study all the options, and choose carefully. 

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Contact Long Island Tech Solutions | Most Experienced MSSP in New York City

Cyber vulnerabilities and risks continue to grow for businesses of all sizes. Modern-era companies need to be intelligence-driven and response-ready.

Effectively integrating cloud and outsourced services through Managed Security Service Providers has become critical to a successful organization. Cyber threats and attacks continue to challenge governments and businesses around the world.

Li Tech Solutions offers clients in Long Island and Brooklyn the mission-critical services every business needs to succeed. The phenomenal growth of Managed security service providers (MSSP), such as Li Tech Solutions, has the needed countermeasures to contain cyberattacks.   

Healthcare Compliance and Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is revolutionizing every facet of healthcare services. HIPAA- compliant storage, applications, and varied networks worldwide are trending to the cloud, solving complex infrastructure issues and data protection solutions.

Long Island Tech Solutions: What Is the Cloud?

The fundamental premise of the cloud is to provide a computing model to enable ubiquitous,  convenient, on-demand network access. The cloud is a shared pool of configurable computing resources (servers, networks, storage, applications, and proprietary services) that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal management or provider interaction.

Cloud compliance within the healthcare space continues to be identified as a pivotal facet for protecting patient data. Cloud innovation continues to evolve, and lax protection cannot be permitted. There is no resolution in sight to skyrocketing ransomware and malicious code attacks.

The following post highlights a few of the challenges and innovations healthcare organizations face in a world of increasing cloud adoption and rampant cyber-raids.

  • Attacks Are on the Rise
  • HIPAA Compliance
  • Compliance in the Cloud
  • Innovate in a Multi-Cloud World 

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Varied healthcare industries ranked personalized care (52%) and AI assistants (44%) positively impacting cloud adoption.  Patient portals, mobility, and back-end development are actively being harnessed to work with groundbreaking  cloud applications.

LI Tech Solutions provides breakthrough Managed Services Support for Long Island and worldwide healthcare.  LI Tech’s regulatory compliance division can equip your enterprise with proprietary hybrid cloud frameworks to mitigate any malware attack. (516) 210-6400

Healthcare cost restraints and data protection solutions rooted in the cloud are rapidly being implemented worldwide. Ransomware, service denials, and other malicious codes are proliferating more than ever before.

Streamlining Healthcare Data Management with Managed IT Services in Long Island

Attacks Are on the Rise

Millions of individuals are being affected by extortion-based ransomware attacks carried out against healthcare companies:

  • 48,000 patients of CarePointe Enterprises, an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist in Merrillville, Indiana, announced a ransomware attack on June 21, 2021
  • Atlanta Allergy and Asthma reported an assault on 9,851 of its patients in January of 2021. 

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Attacks against healthcare continue to escalate. SonicWall gave its mid-year threat assessment. In just the first six months of 2021:

  • Cryptojacking increased by 23%
  • Encrypted threats rose by 26%
  • IoT attacks increased by 59%
  • Ransomware rose by 151%

HIPAA Compliance

Healthcare organizations worldwide are under intensifying pressure to satisfy the mounting demands of patients and administrative compliance.  Data security is a motivating factor for cloud deployment decisions by a majority of healthcare firms. Cost concerns placed a distant third.

Healthcare, across every industry vertical, must use care when implementing cloud-based solutions. The HIPAA Privacy Rule vigorously protects an individual’s information when dealing with any electronic activity. 

HIPAA compliance requires healthcare systems to have appropriate physical, administrative, and technical safeguards protecting PHI and ePHI files.

Read more in our article: Healthcare’s Digital Transformation: Why It Matters

New York City’s Best MSP: LI Tech Solutions (516) 210-6400

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A substantial impediment to adopting cloud services is the treatment by HIPAA of external cloud partners. Healthcare Cloud vendors or subcontractors are compelled to secure an individual’s PHI to HIPAA standards. This element alone is intimidating to many smaller, under-resourced companies on the Cloud’s periphery.

The HIPAA Omnibus Rule is another fundamental safeguard of patient histories. Healthcare companies and their business associates/subcontractors must enter into a transaction agreement delineating the proposed uses of a patient’s personal healthcare information (PHI). If an associate runs afoul of the HIPAA law, the originating healthcare company can be held directly liable for the breach.

Technology functions differently in the healthcare space because of how electronic data is processed and stored.

Compliance in the Cloud: LI Tech Solutions Shows You How

HIPAA compliance in a world of accelerating advancements in cloud computing is a daunting task for every healthcare entity.

In 2014, NIST set a Cybersecurity framework for industries to establish cloud compliance within the  HIPAA Rules and Regulations. Loopholes, uncovered by enterprising cyber-attackers, must be sealed with the help of determined American IT companies. 

Framework Foundation:

  • Identify personnel, devices, systems, and facilities and define their importance to the organization and business objectives. Prioritize the organization’s cloud mission and its objectives. Define cybersecurity roles, responsibilities, and corresponding risk-management arrangements.
  • Monitor regulatory risk and operational governance.
  • Establish risk tolerances and cloud priorities.
  • Ensure personnel is adequately trained to maintain cloud security obligations.

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Innovate in a Multi-Cloud World

Healthcare is no longer a quaint little doctor sitting in a book-filled room, just down the street. Physician groups around the globe draw on the competence of countless other professionals connected to the unparalleled cloud foundation.

Regulatory frameworks, HIPAAGDPR,  and HITRUST, among other agencies, afford protection for various patient-critical environments. Healthcare continues its universal adoption of the cloud and its sophisticated technologies. 

Multi-Cloud offerings and hybrid technologies offered by elite IT service companies, LI Tech Solutions, and others, innovate and leverage data in real-time.

LI Tech Solutions is an elite managed services provider for the healthcare sector in Long Island. (516) 210-6400

Managed IT services for non-profits are an emerging area of technology. LI Tech Solutions and other elite IT firms, offer powerful implementation and consulting of deep-dive cloud frameworks. 

Machine learning and AI have become embedded in every facet of healthcare, providing powerful insights and network security. Unusual behavior can be identified in every application, user, and cloud workload to mitigate threats before damage is done.

Data encryption has developed into a strategic ingredient in a layered approach to patient care. Organizations must map out when each PHI file enters its network environment, where the file is being stored, and where the file exits the network. 

HIPAA requires each healthcare company to encrypt and decrypt electronic health information for each of its patients. (ePHI)   

HIPAA does not stipulate what degree of encryption is required for PHI files. However, best practice across the industry recommends AES-128, AES-256 or better.

Key segments of the healthcare sector continue to identify shifting models made up of multi-cloud structures and HIPAA compliance. 

Implementation of advanced technologies within the cloud and healthcare R&D divisions remains robust and challenging.

Working Better With the Cloud

In all its forms and applications, the Cloud has revolutionized business. If a company chooses to be more efficient, secure, or scale to new heights, the Cloud is a precondition to success. According to the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, 84% of small business owners consider cloud services fundamental to their successful operation.

An organization can extend employee productivity beyond the physical workplace and allow businesses to meet any future possibilities.  

The Cloud is one of a few ground-breaking technologies equally accessible to small, medium, and large enterprises. Whether the operation is a one-person shop or multi-national, the Cloud can generate an opportunity.

The following post highlights how integrated IT companies such as LITech Solutions bring all the possibilities of the Cloud to any size business. Only a few, highly trained organizations around the globe, offer the solutions as LI Tech.

  • How Can the Cloud Transform Your Business?
  • Working with LI Tech
  • The Cloud
  • Final Word

LI Tech Solutions (516) 210-6400 

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7 Ways The Cloud Transform Your Business

Consider the following seven areas where LI Tech Solutions has made a difference

  1. Scale at Speed. There are occasions when a business encounters a surge in production or a sudden rise in shipments. Moving operations to the Cloud allows the firm to deal with such increases quickly and efficiently. Services are better coordinated, support offerings are enhanced, and communications across the supply chain are reinforced.
  2. Greater Collaboration. According to Microsoft, 66% of small to medium-sized businesses recognize the ability to work on any device integral to their operations. Teams in outlying parts of the globe can collaborate on documents and tasks without email attachments, sharing calendars, or jumping on the phone.
  3. Cloud-based services are bringing clients and patients into the discussion, improving information sharing and patient care. Healthcare has benefitted from the Cloud and its wondrous possibilities, unlike any other industry. LI Tech Solutions is at the cutting edge of Digital Healthcare.
  4. The ability to access data at any time for anyone with the appropriate credentials is an essential part of growth. The Cloud offers consistency between employees, management, and consumers, meaning everyone is on the same page. Barriers of remote access are eliminated; Cloud computing brings the office to the employee.
  5. Employees are finding a work-at-home solution as their best route to raising a family, with 36% of all new hires since 2019 agreeing to both in-office and residential work situations. LI Tech offers integration alternatives for companies to blend with the new work paradigm.
  6. The Cloud allows businesses to deliver a customer experience that adds new digital touchpoints and insights to the relationship. Brands are building through traditional advertising channels and new Cloud-based initiatives; growth ahead is the direct link between business and consumer.
  7. Growing your company online means having the proper information at the most opportune time. Companies must make certain the information they receive is correct. 52% of all web traffic comes from automated bots, and half of those are bad bots looking to harm your hardware and networks. LI Tech’s backup and security methodologies are the future of data security.

LI Tech provides five robust components that take your organization into the future. The company is one of the exclusive few Cloud Integration providers that can undertake any size infrastructure opportunity. (516) 210-6400 

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Working with LI Tech: #1 MSP in New York City

  • LI Tech scans your current computer software and hardware configurations and offers cost alternatives and improvements.
  • Collaboration is improved for all teams. Your company’s skilled employees will experience a radical improvement in connecting with others. Employees access files and documents housed in secure areas of the Cloud Infrastructure.
  • LI Tech’s advanced security measures keep data safe and encrypted. Advanced network protocols deal with the everyday care of the network.

The Cloud

Exciting new technologies are advancing the enterprise, and proprietary services are revolutionizing the corporate infrastructure. Every business sector is seeing the rewards of innovating with the Cloud and LI Tech Solutions.

Four services Long Island Tech Solutions is Pioneering:

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) helps businesses by taking advantage of pre-formed structures to handle different workload demands. A major player in Cloud services is Microsoft Azure, an LI Tech partner known worldwide as an innovator.
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS) gives your company’s developers access to cloud-based mechanisms such as APIs and web portals. PaaS such as Salesforce Lightning is an attractive solution to build next-level CRM applications.
  • Software as a Service (SaaS) brings the world to any device. SaaS gives users access to applications to help them collaborate better, manage projects with efficiency, and grow the business without constraint.
  • Compliance as a Service (CaaS) is one of the newest services provided by LITech. As the assimilation of the public and government expands, so do the mounds of regulation. CaaS by LI Tech helps companies meet the overload of excessive regulation. 

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Contact LI Tech For The Best Cloud Infrastructure Development in New York

No other company in the technology space gives its patrons a forward-thinking opportunity like LI Tech Solutions. From its proprietary Managed Services to the Cloud Infrastructure division, LITech offers consumers the best of all worlds.

Businesses around the globe are accelerating their infrastructure move to the Cloud. LI Tech offers unmatched solutions spanning the Cloud and business environments. LI Tech’s advanced services provide increased performance metrics and deliver tight integration with the tools already being used by the company.

How Data Compliance and Cybersecurity Differ

When you run a business, compliance and cybersecurity are two essential factors. Both are equally important for the seamless operation of your business. While compliance helps your business stay within the limits of industry or government regulations, security protects the integrity of your business and sensitive data.

It is worth noting that although security is a prime component of compliance, compliance does not equal security. This is because compliance does not consider the growing threat landscape and associated risks. What it considers, however, is a set of pre-defined policies, procedures, controls, etc. 

If an audit concludes that these pre-defined elements are adequate and your business adheres to them, everything is considered “okay” from a compliance standpoint. However, you still may not be up to scratch from a security standpoint, which only goes to show that you can be compliant but still fall short on security.

In other words, because compliance requirements take a predictable path and change slowly, the compliance landscape lags behind the rapidly changing, unpredictable security landscape.

Now, let’s find out how your business can benefit by combining compliance and cybersecurity.

 

Get Covered With Security and Compliance Solutions

There are multiple security loopholes that you must proactively fix to stay out of danger. You can do it by deploying suitable security solutions. A few common security loopholes and related solutions are:

1. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) 

APTs across three attack pillars endpoints, network and the cloud — are capable of paralyzing hybrid/remote/on-site work environments. Experts estimate the global APT protection market to be worth close to $6 billion in 2021 and $12 billion in 2025.(1) This statistic highlights the trouble caused by APTs. The best way to tackle it is by deploying a solution that can: 

  • Offer 24/7 monitoring and threat hunting
  • Efficiently block malicious actors that evade firewalls and antivirus systems

2. Insider threats skyrocketing at alarming rates

Over the last two years, insider incidents have increased by 47%.(2) What makes the scenario even worse is the fact that insider threats are tough to detect. That’s why it is advisable to have an advanced internal threat detection solution that combines machine learning and intelligent tagging to identify anomalous activity, suspicious changes and threats caused by misconfiguration.

3. Lack of clarity about the network

Keeping track of all the computers, mobile phones, printers and servers on your business’ network is challenging, especially in today’s increasingly remote-first approach to work. But without knowing the devices on your network, it is not possible to know your IT network’s health. To combat this problem, you need an automated assessment and documentation solution capable of identifying risks to all assets, including those not physically connected to the network.

4. Untrained employees and credentials getting sold on the dark web

  • When your employees are untrained and are unaware of risky actions, it could lead to severe security setbacks. For example, an employee carelessly clicking on a phishing link could lead to a full-blown ransomware attack on your business. 
  • Another major cybersecurity issue that you may encounter is when your credentials get sold on the dark web. Experts estimate that 60% of the information available on the dark web could negatively affect most businesses’ security and financials.(3)
  • Remember that inadequate data access protocols are not just a security issue but can also land you in hot water with regulators.

Tackle all the above issues by deploying industry-best solutions for security awareness training, dark web monitoring and identity/access management.

Just like security loopholes, you must also fix compliance loopholes the moment you spot them. Non-compliance can even lead to regulators levying penalties as high as 4% of your company turnover.(4) Beyond financial loss, you will also have to face stakeholder dissatisfaction, drop in market share, etc. To avoid such trouble, use a solution that automates compliance processes and generates insightful reports that document compliance.

 

Convergence of Cybersecurity and Compliance

Most companies have at least minimum protection in place, such as an antivirus on workstations/active firewalls. However, you must make sure that your business’ security posture can withstand the growing cyberthreat landscape. With some effort, you can incorporate your security solutions into your compliance strategy as well. 

By carefully bringing both security and compliance together systematically, you can reduce risks significantly. To ramp up your organization’s security posture, you can implement strong authentication, data protection, access monitoring, network-to-edge defenses, etc. By routinely validating the effectiveness of these solutions once they’re in place, you can ensure your organization is taking the necessary measures to avoid non-compliance and security breaches. 

 

Ready to take the next step? We can help.

 

Register for a consultation to learn more about how LI Tech Solutions can help you combine compliance and cybersecurity to prevent data compliance issues.

 

Sources:

  1. Statista
  2. 2020-Global-Cost-of-Insider-Threats-Ponemon-Report
  3. CSO Online
  4. GDPR Associates