Healthcare Company Boosts File Transfer Security with Scanning Solution

A private, nonprofit health company and one of the largest healthcare organizations in the southern United States takes advantage of the security, automation, encryption, and ease of use of their managed file transfer solution, Fortra’s GoAnywhere MFT. However, they had no reliable way to scan the personal and sensitive patient files they transferred daily for threats as those files moved in and out of their network.

As a healthcare organization, the company must meet stringent industry compliance requirements, including HIPAA and HITECH to protect ePHI, along with maintaining the trust of its nearly 1.5 million patients and about 30,000 team members across multiple hospitals, and practice sites in its network.

Bundled SFT Threat Protection Added to Boost Security

The organization had entrusted the transfer and security of their most sensitive files to GoAnywhere MFT for several years but found their security needs growing. “We identified that [managed file transfer] was becoming an increasingly attractive vector for hackers,” said their administrator of Information Technology. “More and more healthcare systems are being targeted and our InfoSec team wanted to make us more secure as we transfer our patient and other files.”

Rather than seek out separate, disparate solutions, they turned to their MFT solution provider, Fortra and its integrated SFT Threat Protection solution. This bundled solution consists of GoAnywhere MFT, which they were already using, plus GoAnywhere Gateway and Clearswift’s Secure ICAP Gateway throughout its enterprise. This bundled solution is the only approved MFT solution for the entire enterprise.

InfoSec and MFT Teams Appreciate Robust Scanning Capabilities

“We leverage the file security combination of GoAnywhere MFT and Clearswift ICAP to provide total scanning capability to meet the greatly increased threat of security issues facing healthcare providers,” said the administrator. “So far, it has met and exceeded the expectations of our MFT team, and it has satisfied the requirements of our InfoSec team. Once configured, it has performed well, and the labor requirement to support it day to day is surprisingly low.”

With healthcare one of the many industries challenged with tighter budgets and fewer resources, a combined solution is a resource-conserving tactic. Fortra’s bundled solutions allow the organization’s staff and trading partners to share sensitive, business-critical files quickly and securely with fully integrated threat protection and data loss prevention. They are assured that the files they send have been inspected prior to transfer by GoAnywhere MFT for threats as well as data leakage to minimize the risk of malware, threats hidden within documents or images, high-risk executables, or data loss before it is sent or received.

Going beyond traditional stop and block technology, ICAP applies the appropriate measures to any questionable content contained in either the healthcare entity’s or its trade ally’s files based on the organization’s policies. This allows safe content to flow through uninterrupted and reduces business disruptions, which could be critical when it comes to delivering timely healthcare information.

Bundled Security Solution Showing Results

“Since implementing our new configuration of GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere Gateway, and the Clearswift ICAP Gateway, we have detected and stopped several suspect files, and have built rules to block all inbound connections from sources that are not our vendors. It has increased the security for all our MFT activities,” said the administrator, who also noted that the day-to-day labor required to support this more secure file transfer process is surprisingly low.

In addition to being a user-friendly, low-labor solution, he added, “We like the fact that these solutions are tightly integrated and once properly configured, the integrated suite of products runs smoothly and with minimal routine support and problems.” 

“I would highly recommend the products to anyone who uses GoAnywhere MFT as their primary system to move data and files. It greatly decreases the vulnerability and attack surface to hackers, runs well, and the support required is very minimal and reasonable.”