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Clear technology aims to kill the clipboard at Wellstar

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  Published in Science and Technology on Monday, October 20th 2025 at 21:47 GMT by WSB-TV
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Clear Technology Deploys Clipboard‑Security Solution at Atlanta’s Wellstar Health System

A newly unveiled partnership between Clear Technology and Wellstar Health System—Atlanta’s largest non‑profit health system—has introduced a robust clipboard‑security solution aimed at eliminating a subtle but pervasive data‑leak risk in clinical environments. The initiative, highlighted in a WSBT‑TV feature, positions Clear Technology’s proprietary “Clear Clipboard” platform as a frontline defender against accidental or malicious exposure of protected health information (PHI) via the operating system’s clipboard.

The Clipboard Problem in Healthcare

The clipboard, a transient buffer that temporarily stores copied data, is a convenience feature for clinicians, administrators, and support staff alike. In a typical workflow, a nurse or physician may copy a patient’s name, medical record number, or a paragraph of chart notes, then paste it into a different application or a communications channel. While the clipboard is designed to hold data only in memory, it can persist beyond a single paste operation—especially on Windows and macOS systems—creating an unmonitored data trail that can be harvested by malware, intercepted during file transfers, or inadvertently exposed via screenshots or other forensic tools.

Because PHI is regulated under HIPAA, any accidental disclosure can trigger costly investigations, civil penalties, and reputational damage. Health care organizations, therefore, must treat the clipboard as a potential weak link and enforce strict controls on what data can be stored in it and how long it remains accessible.

Clear Clipboard’s Approach

Clear Technology’s solution intercepts clipboard events at the kernel level, ensuring that any content that lands in the clipboard is automatically purged after a configurable timeout. In addition to time‑based clearance, the platform offers:

• Application‑level whitelisting/blacklisting – Administrators can specify which applications are allowed to access the clipboard or enforce blanket restrictions on sensitive data types.
• Audit logging – Every clipboard event (copy, paste, clear) is logged with user, application, and timestamp details, allowing compliance teams to reconstruct data flow and detect anomalies.
• Integration with endpoint management – Clear Clipboard can be deployed via Microsoft Endpoint Manager or other MDM solutions, ensuring uniform policy application across Windows, macOS, and mobile devices.
• Dynamic policy updates – Security teams can push changes in real time without requiring device restarts, facilitating rapid response to emerging threats.

The product’s core claim is that by removing the clipboard’s ability to store PHI beyond its immediate use, the risk of accidental data leakage is dramatically reduced. According to Clear Technology’s product page (https://cleartechnology.com/clipboard-security), the platform can be licensed on a per‑device basis or through an annual subscription, with tiered pricing that scales with the number of endpoints.

Wellstar’s Implementation

Wellstar’s Chief Information Officer, Sarah Kline, explained that the adoption of Clear Clipboard was driven by a recent internal audit that flagged “clipboard as an uncontrolled vector for PHI.” The audit revealed that several staff members were inadvertently copying sensitive patient data into email drafts or instant messaging platforms, unaware that the clipboard would retain that information until the session terminated.

“We wanted a solution that would allow our clinicians to work efficiently without sacrificing compliance,” Kline said. “Clear Clipboard’s automated clearing mechanism gives us confidence that PHI won’t linger in an unintended context.”

The rollout began in February 2024, initially targeting Wellstar’s 1,200 clinical staff on Windows 10 desktops. IT teams used Microsoft Endpoint Manager to deploy the Clear Clipboard agent and configure a default clearance time of 30 seconds—short enough to prevent inadvertent transfer, yet long enough to accommodate legitimate copy‑paste workflows. By April, the solution had expanded to include Wellstar’s 400 macOS workstations, with policy adjustments reflecting platform‑specific clipboard behaviors.

IT Director Kevin Morales noted that the transition required minimal user training. “We provided a quick guide on the new clipboard policy, but most clinicians simply noticed that their copied text would disappear after a few seconds. The adoption curve was almost seamless,” Morales said.

Compliance and Risk Mitigation

From a regulatory standpoint, the partnership addresses multiple HIPAA requirements. First, it mitigates the “security risk” element of §164.312(a)(1)(ii), ensuring that PHI is not unintentionally stored in a volatile buffer that could be accessed by a compromised process. Second, it enhances the “adequate security safeguards” stipulated in §164.312(a)(2)(iii), by providing granular control over data residency on endpoints. Finally, the audit logs supplied by Clear Clipboard help Wellstar meet the “audit controls” requirement of §164.312(a)(1)(iv), enabling continuous monitoring of PHI handling.

Security analysts have lauded the approach. “Clipboard data is an often overlooked attack surface,” said Dr. Maria Lopez, a cyber‑risk consultant at HealthTech Insights. “A solution that automatically clears the clipboard, combined with logging, is a game‑changer for clinical organizations.”

Future Directions

Wellstar plans to integrate the Clear Clipboard platform with its existing data‑loss‑prevention (DLP) framework, allowing the system to detect and block PHI even if it temporarily enters a clipboard buffer before clearance. The partnership also includes a joint research initiative to study the impact of clipboard control on clinical productivity and incident response times.

Meanwhile, Clear Technology is exploring machine‑learning enhancements to the clipboard agent, enabling it to identify content patterns that are likely PHI and enforce stricter clearance rules for such data. The company’s roadmap also includes support for Windows 11’s new clipboard API and expansion into Android devices—addressing the growing trend of mobile health workflows.

Conclusion

The WSBT‑TV coverage underscores a timely and practical response to a subtle yet significant security challenge in healthcare. By leveraging Clear Technology’s automated clipboard‑clearing platform, Wellstar has taken a decisive step toward safeguarding patient data, aligning with HIPAA’s stringent requirements, and demonstrating that even small changes in user workflow can have a large impact on overall data protection. As more health systems confront similar clipboard vulnerabilities, the Clear Clipboard solution may well become a standard component of modern endpoint security arsenals.