
Citrix ShareFile has been making waves in the healthcare IT world since its inception. Over the past year, the use of Citrix ShareFile has risen 137%. ShareFile is a cloud based solution provided by Citrix that is fully compliant with HIPAA regulations. ShareFile allows companies to share media within the cloud while disallowing users to take the information out of the private Citrix cloud.
The implementation of ShareFile is important because of a recent government deadline that just passed. In September of 2013, the federal government required that all protected health information (better known as PHI) to be treated with enhanced security measures. These enhanced security measures were part of the 1996 HIPAA law that all healthcare companies are required to follow.
Citrix ShareFile is unlike other encrypted cloud media solutions out there. Citrix ShareFile provides audit controls for system administrators. This satisfies a HIPAA requirement which requires that system administrators be able to provide a full audit trail of those who accessed which data, why they accessed it and what they did with the data. The administration suite gives unique users specialized access based on their job role. Other features that satisfy HIPAA requirements include emergency account access, session timeouts, encrypted data and databases, password management, account lock outs, data back-ups, integrity controls, disaster recovery and 3rd party external security audits.
The private cloud that Citrix has built for the ShareFile infrastructure is exclusively used by companies that store personal health information. These companies include health care, insurance and financial organizations. While all of these companies are allowed to use the same private Citrix cloud, other companies that do not store personal health information are not included inside of this cloud.
Citrix created this enclave in order to provide dedicated resources that do not mingle with any other types of data in order to be HIPAA compliant. In addition to virtual safeguards, physical safeguards are also in place in regards to the Citrix ShareFile infrastructure. More information is available about Citrix ShareFile by calling Citrix at 1-800-441-3453 or emailing support@ShareFile.com.