Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust is an integrated organisation providing acute health care services from Torbay Hospital, as well as community health services and adult social care. The Health Informatic Service provides support to the Trust, which includes Torbay Hospital as well as five community hospitals.
The Trust collectively employs approximately 6,500 staff, and, in a typical year, oversees 500,000 face-to-face contacts with patients in their homes and communities and sees over 78,000 people in its Emergency Department (A&E).
Full Device Visibility
Up-to-date Protections
DSPT
Compliance
"Managing a large fleet of laptop devices - each containing critical confidential data - is an incredibly challenging task and we take information security extremely seriously."
Darren Thomas, Desktop Operation Specialist
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
THE STORY
Establishing visibility of all devices
As part of a review of its device management processes, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust worked with Absolute Software™ to identify unused and unprotected devices and improve overall security.
Using the Absolute Resilience™ platform, the Trust launched an initiative to improve visibility across its laptop estate — comprised of approximately 6,000 devices in total.
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How they did it
Maximising device resources with geolocation
Using Absolute’s geolocation and device tracking capabilities, it became clear that approximately 100 laptops were inactive or unused within the Trust’s network. These laptops were quickly retrieved, updated, and re-deployed for use, saving the Trust thousands of pounds and helping to maximise resources. Additionally, the Trust established a system whereby inactive devices that remain unused for a period of 30 days automatically lock.
Keeping cyber protections installed and up-to-date
The Trust can now quickly update security scripts across the entire Windows device estate, meaning it can ensure encryption and cyber protection systems are installed, up-to-date, and running.
“By working with Absolute, we not only have the ability to ensure all endpoints are secure, protected, and updated, but we also have complete visibility into the status of our device estate. This means we can ensure each and every laptop is fully operational, and that unused devices can be quickly updated and returned for use.”
-Darren Thomas, Desktop Operation Specialist at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation
Ensuring compliance with mandatory DSPT requirements
Additionally, the IT team has full visibility into the status of the device fleet that are connected to or are off the corporate network, allowing the Trust to comply with the mandatory Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) requirements by ensuring that devices are secure at all times. In the event of a lost or stolen device, they can take action by locking the device and, if needed, delete any sensitive files or wipe the device fully to meet NIST standards. The Trust can also produce a certificate to confirm the data wipe and can prove encryption was present at the time of lost or theft.
"We’re delighted to be working with a leading healthcare organisation like Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, improving security across all endpoints - so that confidential data remains protected from outsider threats."
Edward Blake, Area Vice President
Absolute Software UK and Ireland
THE RESULTS
Improve security with complete visibility
Unidentified and unprotected devices increase the risk of cyberattacks. With Absolute, the Trust has complete visibility into the status of their device fleet, allowing them to ensure every device is fully operational, updated, and protected.
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