We take data security very seriously. Here's what we do to keep your clinic and your clients safe.

At its core, all Shepherd data is hosted on AWS (Amazon Web Services) services, which is one of the most widely used cloud-based platforms in the world.

Shepherd also uses what's called an SSL as the backbone of all communication between the software, our clients, and their data. All data is backed up (internally and externally), and there are no public access points to the servers it's hosted on.

The front end of the application uses local storage to store information that's been authorized on the back end of the application. So not only is all accessible information secure, there's also no viable way to access one clinic's data from another's application.

The back end of Shepherd cannot be accessed by anything other than an authenticated Shepherd user. And in keeping with our high-security standards, customer access and backend communication both use SSL encryption.

Customer data can only be accessed through Shepherd's back end, which, on top of using SSL encryption, also leverages OAuth2-based token (think: access code) access. These tokens ensure that only authorized users can get in—and they'll need a specific token to do so.

Additionally, there is no public (or external) way to access the database; it can only be accessed internally.

We cache—or store—data using AWS (Amazon Web Services) caching service. This uses a time-sensitive, GUID-based data exchange that doesn't expose the data—or an access point to the data—to the outside.

If needed, this cached data is what we use for backups.

Similarly to caching data, we use AWS data backup technology. This allows data to be restored as far back as a week within about 2 hours.

(per cloudflare.com) "An encryption-based internet security protocol which ensures privacy, authentication, and data integrity in Internet communications." More info here.

(per auth0.com) “​A standard designed to allow a website or application to access resources hosted by other web apps on behalf of a user.” More info here

(per aws.com) “Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally.” Shepherd’s database is hosted on this platform. More info here

(per library.si.edu/) "A globally unique ID (string) that identifies a digital entity (person, place, or thing) that needs to be managed and kept available for a length of time”. More info here

(per aws.amazon.com/) "A database cache supplements [the] primary database by removing unnecessary pressure on it, typically in the form of frequently accessed read data. The cache itself can live in a number of areas including your database, application, or as a standalone layer.”