SDHS Transfer Service - General Information

The University of Cambridge's Clinical School operates a 'Secure Transfer Service' for transferring sensitive personal data between sites - such as between clinics and researchers. It is one of the approved methods for transferring data both into and out of the SDHS

Guides

We have created a number of guide documents providing instructions on how you can use the service to transfer data, the modes that the published directories can operate in and how Data Managers can access log information about the files that have been transferred.

Working Conventions

Typically the Data Managers of the Study will define the working practices that should be followed. The practices that they publish usually include guidance on the naming of files, formats, frequency of data submission and details of additional security that should be applied. Whilst CSCS can offer some guidance on these topics, we try to abstain from setting out too rigid requirements.

Security

The transfer server is a temporary storage location providing a mechanism to transfer data to and from the SDHS. As such, any data should be quickly removed from the system into the SDHS network to minimise the risk of unauthorised access.

To comply with our security policy, we implement scheduled monitoring and clean-up of all data on the transfer server on a regular basis. We will require Data Managers to specify how they would like data that is placed on the transfer server to be handled. A number of models for data handling have been defined and further details on these can be found by following the links above.