Data Integrity & Security Measures

Updated: April 2009

Our data collection applications were designed to meet the security requirements of researchers in both hospital and academic settings

FDA Compliance

The data collection engines and protocols used in our on-line surveys were designed to be compliant with the US FDA regulations on collecting and maintaining Electronic Records (i.e., Part 11 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations regarding Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures). We would be pleased to discuss with you the ways in which we have met FDA Compliance.

Data Backup

Data and applications are backed up nightly to a both local electronic medium (mirrored IDE Hard Drives), as well as remotely to a removable electronic medium (CD-ROM) located in a different location from our secure servers.
Access to the electronic medium is restricted to a dedicated office at iSurvey Canada

Software

Applications are implemented in PHP 5.0 running under an enterprise version of Linux on DELL servers.?
Security upgrades and patches are implemented within days of being issued

Hardware

All applications run on dedicated servers, which do not simultaneously run e-mail applications, which are vulnerable to software viruses designed to compromise servers, applications and databases.

Servers are rack mounted and located in secure location with 24 hour supervision and security.

Access

Access to the databases and software applications is restricted to just three key individuals (iSurvey CEO, the Senior Software Developer, and the Network Support Specialist).

Repeat access to surveys can be restricted – participants can be limited to taking the survey just once
Automatic timeouts disable access to both administrators and survey respondents after long period of inactivity (i.e., more than 30 to 60 minutes).
Accounts that are not accessed for more than 30 days are automatically deactivated.
Individual studies can be immediately suspended, if and when required, without deleting or resetting individual accounts or suspending other studies.

Data Transmission

Data being submitted or downloaded from our servers are transmitted over a secure socket layer using industry standard 128-bit encryption. This includes responses to surveys, creation and editing of all surveys, databases or accounts, as well as downloading data files.

We use a RapidSSL Secure Socket Layer, certified by Equifax Secure Incorporated.



The security certificate can be verified by clicking on the lock icon at the bottom right of the browser in which your survey is being rendered. This survey will use the www.isurvey.ca URL or specify a custom defined subdomain such as mysurvey.isurvey.ca





On downloading data files, the local operating system may prompt users to either save or open the data files. As a security measure, all data files must first be downloaded to local machines before bing opened.