Andy Jones
DevOps Manager
Spring Venture Group is a leader in matching consumers with health insurance plans through comparison shopping technology. Their innovative online platforms and experienced agents help Medicare-eligible seniors find the best plan at the best price based on their health and lifestyle.
“Digitally connecting consumers with the insurance solution that meets their needs requires secure communications workflows to maintain the trust and privacy of our customers and partners. Our agents gather information about the customer’s health background and then work with a network of insurance partners to create a plan that fits their needs. Some of these partners share information with us via SFTP or Secure File Transfer Protocol. While that is sufficient for securing third-party communication, the customer cannot receive a file via SFTP.
“We needed a quick solution for sharing information with customers in a way that was both secure and easily accessible via email. This could have been accomplished with a hosted email gateway, but both the Virtru and Spring Ventures teams felt that was an unnecessarily complex solution to this simple workflow problem.”
“We had already written a simple script in Python that grabs the documents from the SFTP server, parses them to retrieve the email address of the customer, then generates an email with the file attached. However, we needed an extra layer of data protection for those files to maintain HIPAA compliance. With just a few lines of code, we were able to add Virtru to our Python app to encrypt the file before attaching it to the email, ensuring any personal health information (PHI) is protected to HIPAA standards. Thousands of files are protected as a result of this simple solution that took less than a week to implement. Most importantly, the customer can easily open the attachment in their web browser without additional passwords or complicated portals. We chose Virtru due to the relative simplicity of decryption for the end-user. We were very wary of sending PGP encrypted files along with complex decryption instructions.
“Access to the Virtru Data Security Platform allowed our Developer to independently test the solution using the Python SDK with no cost or risk. With clear documentation and support from the Virtru team, we were able to move it into production within a matter of days.”
“When Management tasks our team with developing a custom app or new workflow, it’s typically because they need it right away. It’s our job to balance the need to innovate quickly with the delivery of secure code. With minimal time investment and development resources, we were able to take advantage of Virtru’s platform architecture to protect data both in-transit and at rest. Since we serve regulated industries, such as insurance and healthcare, there’s no doubt that we could apply this technology to our applications in the future.”
“We needed an extra layer of data protection for those files to maintain HIPAA compliance. With just a few lines of code, we were able to add Virtru to our Python app to encrypt the file before attaching it to the email, ensuring any personal health information (PHI) is protected to HIPAA standards.”
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