**Addressing the need for UK researchers to use and share sensitive data safely and securely ** *Frances Burton, Jisc* Research Data Network

2. Frances Burton, Security services group manager, Jisc
The safe share project

3. The safe share project
» Substantial investment in medical research to unlock the value of data collected by
Government and NHS
» Further knowledge of disease and ill health to improve medical treatments
Background
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» Health data is very personal and sensitive
» Significant numbers of ethical, consensual and practical hurdles to making use of the data
for research
Challenges

4. Partners
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5. The safe share project
» Requirement for connectivity to move and access electronic health data securely
» Challenge to give public confidence that data is appropriately protected
» Provide economies of scale in secure connectivity
Drivers
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» Jisc management and funding of £865k to pilot potential solutions with the aim of
developing a service in 2016/17
The safe share project

6. The safe share project
The Farr Institute
The MRC Medical Bioinformatics Initiative
The Administrative Data Research Network
Partners
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University of Bristol University of Dundee Francis Crick Institute
University of Leeds UCL University of Manchester
University of Sheffield University of Southampton Swansea University
Pilot institutions

7. The safe share project
» Reduction in duplication of effort as a solution is needed by everyone
» Avoidance of potential competing incompatible solutions in different centres
» Support for RCUK and Government strategies for health informatics
» An on-going co-ordinated partnership that can help with further challenges to support
health informatics in the UK
» Improved knowledge and a scalable solution providing benefits for other members of the
community with similar needs
Benefits
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8. How Safe Share works
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9. Safe Share
Example “service slice”
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Institution LAN
Trusted
environments
safe share router at edge
Institution LAN
Safe share
core Institution LAN
Janet, internet or
other network

10. Institution LAN
Institution LAN
Institution LAN
Safe Share
Example “service slice”
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Trusted
environments
safe share router at edge
Safe share
core
Janet, internet or
other network

11. Safe Share at Swansea
“What safe share effectively does is run a managed service, so Jisc puts a firewall in an
organisation then encrypts traffic so data can go from one place to another, where there will be
another Jisc-owned firewall, which can decrypt the data once it arrives.
It's about making things easier on a per-project basis - this project is allowed to talk to an
institution and access their datasets – and we can make requests on a more impromptu and
flexible basis, because its managed by the system it is guaranteed that all the end points are
secure.”
SimonThompson, ChiefTechnology Officer,
Swansea University Medical School.
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12. The safe share project: latest
»Safe share tested at St Andrews, Southampton, Cardiff, Swansea,
Leeds and Manchester Universities plus London Borough of
Hillingdon
»Preparing for ISO27001 and Official certification
»Moved to service 24 May 2017
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13. PSN use cases
»Cabinet Office interest
› Visited 5 organisations
–Leeds City Council
–East Suffolk District Council
–Oldham MBC
–Kent PSN
–Action for children
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14. The safe share project
»Enabling the secure exchange of data collected by Government
and the NHS using encrypted overlay over the Janet network to
facilitate appropriate analysis between project sites
»Working together to, eg further knowledge of diseases and ill
health to improve medical treatments in the long-term
»Ran from November 2014 – March 2017
»Find out more:
https://jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/safe-share
https://community.jisc.ac.uk/groups/safe-share-project
#jiscsafeshare
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15. jisc.ac.uk
Frances Burton
Security services group manager
Cyber security division
Frances.burton@jisc.ac.uk
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