Protecting the Privacy of Healthcare Data in the Cloud

Privacy is concerned with decisions about legitimate access to, use of, and alteration of information. Privacy establishes a framework for deciding who should legitimately have the capability to access and alter information (Bamauer, 2013). In healthcare, the invasion of patient privacy is a growing concern due to the emergence of advanced persistent threats and targeted attacks against information systems. Technology has driven unprecedented innovation, economic value, and improvement in social services. In healthcare, the value associated with technology is connected to the collection of personal information. Ideally, technology optimizes the benefits individuals derive from technology while protecting the individual's privacy. Add to this the propensity to move healthcare data to the cloud and the concern for privacy increases because of the sheer volume of Protected Health Information (PHI) data stored in the cloud.