St Helens Council implements e-mail security to protect care records

St Helens council has implemented e-mail security to protect sensitive information and ensure the privacy of its social care clients.

The authority has implemented PGP Corporations Universal Gateway E-mail to enable its Adult Social Care and Health department staff to automatically encrypt all e-mails that contain confidential information.

It will enable the council to comply with government regulations related to the transfer of electronic social care records.

We have always taken the responsibility to protect client information very seriously, and the introduction of government data sharing regulations was a catalyst to further improve the way electronic data was transmitted," said Ste Sharples, information communications technology business manager for St Helens Council. "It was also important that the new system be deployed with minimal disruption and without requiring e-mail recipients to install any additional software or change their computing environment."