SkyKick’s Office 365 Tools Win HIPAA, EU Data Certifications

Cloud backup and migration software vendor SkyKick announced today that its key products are now compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework.

Partners can now use SkyKick Cloud Backup and SkyKick Migration Suites cloud management software for U.S. healthcare customers or for those who move information between the U.S. and Europe, without incurring third-party compliance costs.

There will be no additional cost to SkyKick’s more than 5,000 worldwide partners.

“We take data security and privacy very seriously, and our products have always been in line with important regulations,” Brad Younge, SkyKick co-founder and CTO, said in a statement. “However, the HIPAA and Privacy Shield certifications eliminate the overhead of outside compliance management and provides our partners significant peace of mind.”

SideKick Cloud Backup allows for cloud-to-cloud backup and one-click restore of Office 365 data.

The SkyKick Migration Suites software is used to automate Office 365 migrations, from initial sale to project completion.

The HIPAA certification means that service providers that handle electronic protected health information (ePHI) with SkyKick tools meet the rules’ strict physical, network and process security requirements for migrations or backups.

“In addition, SkyKick will sign HIPAA Business Associate Agreements (BAA) with partners to meet HIPAA requirements,” the company’s statement said.

Compliance with HIPAA requirements has become increasingly important for IT services providers in recent years, as the lucrative healthcare vertical has grown riskier due to a federal crackdown on mishandling of sensitive patient data.

So far in 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights has collected $11.4 million in penalties from covered healthcare agencies and the third-party “business associates,” like MSPs, that also handle ePHI.

That’s compared to $23.5 million last year, and just $6.2 million levied in all of 2015.

The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework certifies that companies moving information between the U.S., Europe and Switzerland comply with EU data protection standards.

“The number of SkyKick IT partners managing cloud deployments in healthcare and in Europe has grown tremendously over the past year,” SkyKick’s Younge said. “We’re working hard to make it even easier for them to handle sensitive data.”

Send tips and news to [email protected].