Everton FC implements security system to protect player medical and other data held in the cloud

Club moves to protect the medical data of Wayne Rooney and other players held in the cloud

Everton Football Club is installing a cloud security platform in a bid to better protect sensitive data, including the medical data of stars such as Wayne Rooney, as well as ratcheting up security before the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force.

The platform will apply to all employees, both on premise and working remotely, and will provide the Club with visibility into what data is being stored and shared in the cloud, as well as providing insight into the activities occurring within those cloud services.

The Club claims that it will enable it to demonstrate best business practice by not only proactively protecting confidential data while enabling the club's cloud-first strategy, but also ensuring compliance with the GDPR.

Everton FC uses cloud services to store highly sensitive and confidential information, from contract negotiations and players' medical data to personal details belonging to the club's global fan base.

Following a detailed cloud-risk assessment, part of which involved finding out which cloud services were in use across the organisation, including personal use of popular cloud services, such as Google One Drive, Box and Dropbox, Everton FC selected Netskope's cloud security platform.

Netskope claims that is cloud security platform provides context-aware governance of all cloud usage in the enterprise in real time, whether accessed from the corporate network, remotely, or from a mobile app or sync client.

The aim is to give security professionals greater insight into how the cloud applications are being used, identifying potentially risky activities, helping to identify and therefore protect sensitive data, stop online threats, and to more quickly respond to incidents.

"Data security is a key priority for the club," said Phil Davies, ICT manager at Everton FC. "Information on players and their contracts is a vital asset for us and fans also entrust us with their data, including personally identifiable information. We take this responsibility seriously so we're keen to provide employees with the right tools to boost productivity without compromising on security."

Davies continued: "Netskope's forward-thinking technology enables us to proactively identify risks and protect data so we can rest assured that players' and fans' sensitive data is protected in the cloud. Its deep cloud visibility capability and risk dashboard ensures we can accelerate our move to the cloud in a safe way - while demonstrating compliance with the GDPR."

Computing's DevOps Summit returns on 19 September. Attendance is free to qualifying IT leaders and other senior IT professionals, but places will go fast, so secure yours now.