Infinitely Virtual Unveils Full-Disk Encryption Option

In preparation for its Q1 2016 rollout of a series of HIPAA hosting plans, cloud hosting provider Infinitely Virtual announced a Full Disk Encryption (FDE) option.

The FDE feature will be available for $9.99 for each VM, in all HIPAA hosting plans.

According to TechTarget, Inc., FDE works “by automatically converting data on a HDD into a form that cannot be understood by anyone who doesn’t have the key to ‘undo’ the conversion. Without the proper authentication key, the data remains inaccessible. The advantage of FDE is that it requires no special attention on the part of the end user after he or she initially unlocks the computer. As data is written, it is automatically encrypted. When it is read, it is automatically decrypted.”

“FDE is one of the essential security elements of HIPPA hosting,” said Adam Stern, founder and CEO, Infinitely Virtual. “HIPAA is a rigorous and demanding environment, and only a select number of vendors can truly compete in the space, largely because of the security requirements, which is why FDE is so critical. With our HIPAA audit anticipated by the end of the year, our strategic goal is to offer a series of HIPAA hosting plans during 2016 and to bring our distinctive Infrastructure as a Service approach to healthcare IT, from pricing to customer support.”

In September, the company announced its move into HIPAA hosting market, commencing with the mandated HITECH audit during the fourth quarter of the year. The HIPAA audit program analyzes various processes, controls and policies in the healthcare and health insurance arena, in keeping with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The audit spells out many of the requirements contained in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), to protect the privacy and security of protected health information.

The federal Office of Civil Rights established a comprehensive HIPAA audit protocol that specifies requirements to be assessed through these performance audits. The audit protocol is organized around modules representing separate elements of privacy, security, and breach notification. The combination of these multiple requirements may vary based on the type of covered entity selected for review.

Earlier this year, the companyl earned the highest rating of ‘Enterprise-Ready’ in Skyhigh Networks’Inc. CloudTrust Program for four of its offerings — Infinitely Virtual cloud Server Hosting, InfiniteVault, InfiniteProtect and Virtual Terminal Server. The CloudTrust Program is designed to promote cloud services that have the highest rating of ‘Enterprise Ready.’ Skyhigh provides an objective and detailed risk assessment of more than 9,000 cloud services across 50 attributes developed in conjunction with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). IaaS vendors that satisfy the most stringent requirements for data protection, identity verification, service security, business practices and legal protection earn the highest rating of Enterprise-Ready.