Private Virtual Infrastructure for Security of Electronic Health Records in a Cloud Computing Environment

Abstract

This study focuses on the use of Private Virtual Infrastructure (PVI) to enhance the security of Electronic Health Records (EHR) in a Cloud Computing Environment (CCE). Electronic health records stored in a cloud computing environment place the sensitive data in the control of third parties. Healthcare institutions want to have control over the computing infrastructure that stores their sensitive data. But current cloud computing systems does not guarantee such access to the datacentre infrastructure. Customers are sometimes not aware of where the datacentre keeping their data is even located. This study discusses a security model of cloud computing known as PVI whose core responsibility is to share the security of cloud computing between the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) and the customer. The PVI also seeks to remove the risk exposure between the CSP and the customer. The PVI datacentre is under the control of customer whereas the cloud datacentre infrastructure comes under the control of CSP. A software device called Locater Bot (LoBot) pre-measures the security properties of the cloud infrastructure. The LoBot performs security provisions and offers situational awareness. LoBot also performs continuous monitoring of the cloud computing security. PVI and LoBot offer the tools that organisations need to maintain control over their information in the cloud and retain the benefits of cloud computing. PVI and LoBot have the capacity to satisfy the security requirements of EHR within the CCE.