Apple Partnering With Tresorit To Boost Security On Health Platform CareKit

Security firm Tresorit will work to increase privacy on Apple’s CareKit, an open source software platform that lets users to develop their own health care apps, it was announced Tuesday.

Tresorit’s security technology, ZeroKit will pair up with CareKit to protect patient data in the cloud, Apple’s CareKit blog says. Beginning Wednesday, CareKit developers can use ZeroKit in their apps.

CareKit helps developers create apps that allow health professionals monitor medical symptoms, send images of injuries and keep up on medication schedules.

“Apple designed the iOS platform and CareKit with security at its core,” a post on Apple’s CareKit blog said. “When building apps where data is shared across devices and with other services, developers want to extend this security to the cloud. This is exactly what ZeroKit does.”

ZeroKit will bring user authentication to patients and healthcare workers, as well as end-to-end encryption, which will allow developers to protect PHI (protected health information). Encryption keys are protected, and if there is as a breach records would be visible only in unreadable for. The encryption security feature promises “Zero Knowledge,” which enables secure sharing of patient data without exposing information or keys.

With the new partnership, developers will be able to reach the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance easier, in hopes that it will bring in more customers.

Apple revealed CareKit last March.