Blog Listing

This week, I took part in Network World’s annual real-life scary security stories podcast, a panel hosted by Keith Shaw that looks at some of the most frightful security incidents over the past year. This year, I focused on some of the data security incidents that are becoming all too common in the healthcare industry.…

Back in January, I shared some of my observations on 2009 Priorities for identity management in the new economic reality people are faced with - productivity, security and manageable IT projects. This year’s economics have forced people to do more with less, manage tighter budgets and maintain enterprise security while dealing with re-orgs and layoffs. While 2008 was the worst year to date for data breaches, 2009 hasn’t been much better if you look at this chronology of data breaches, including the recently disclosed incident at Goldman Sachs. The Identity Theft Resource Center keeps tabs as well, and has a nice snapshot of high-profile data breaches. Many of these are the result of unauthorized access, some combined with placing malicious code on servers or laptops to siphon off data. It’s amazing the methods that are being used to access systems, steal data, sometimes extort money and always damage reputations. Potential impact of the Goldman Sachs’s unauthorized upload of proprietary software is still under investigation, but information on how easy it was to pull off makes for scary reading. Given the potential impact of data breaches, there has been significant progress made to tighten access to systems, so let’s review some of the relevant things that are happening in identity management. Following are three areas, I believe, we need to watch for in the latter half of 2009...…

Strong authentication can come in a variety of forms, each with it's own unique strengths and weaknesses. Before selecting a type of strong authentication, think about the following:…

Insider threat is among the biggest challenges security folks face in 2008. The perimeter is dissolving with increased reliance on distributed computing and the mobile workforce, making it more difficult than ever to put up definitive walls around the enterprise. It's a simple reality that we all have to deal with. Check out last month's 2008 Global Information Security Workforce Study conducted by Frost & Sullivan for ISC(2) and SearchSecurity.com's coverage. Two-factor authentication using biometrics as well as physical-logical convergence will gain speed in dealing with the insider threat.…

I’m excited to join Imprivata at a time where healthcare IT, patient data security and clinician workflow efficiencies are front and center in boardrooms and nurses' stations across the country’s healthcare institutions. With more than 500 hospitals on the customer roster, one million healthcare users and strategic relationships with all of the popular HIS vendors, Imprivata has built a strong foundation that was very attractive for me to join and bring my experiences. Imprivata’s healthcare pedigree enables us to focus on delivering practical innovations for solving real-world problems surrounding simplifying and securing user access in hospital environments.…

Back when this blog was in its infancy, we outlined a number of identity management resources that readers should check out. Those blogs are still on the “must-read” list, but there are a number of new ones that have popped up that people interested in identity and access management may find useful...…

The New York Times recently published an interesting article on the rising problem of medical identity theft. When the federal government last researched the issue in 2007, more than 250,000 Americans reported that they were victims of medical identity theft. Since that last report, most experts agree the problem has undoubtedly grown, in part because of the growing use of electronic medical records built without extensive safeguards. To exacerbate the situation, cleaning up after medical ID theft can be hindered by HIPPA compliance – the regulations protect the medical information of the ID thieves as well as you.…

Hundreds of McKesson customers converged in Grapevine, Texas this past week to learn what their peers are doing and to get the latest product updates from McKesson. Infrastructure upgrades was a common theme this year for many of the attendees I spoke to, with virtualization in particular continuing to rise in priority. Many hospitals had partially or completely virtualized their data center, and some had even virtualized all their desktops.…

Just a quick post to congratulate OhioHealth's CTO Jim Lowder on being named to …

The recent Ponemon Institute benchmark study on patient data privacy and security practices sheds some much-needed light on the practice of data protection within our nation’s hospitals. According to the study, today’s hospitals have little confidence in their ability to secure patient records, revealing just how vulnerable they are to data breaches – a concern for all patients. Highlighted are some of the key findings...…

The HITECH Act, HIPAA, as well as mandates from State regulations (e.g. Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00), are raising the minimal requirements that organizations such as healthcare-covered entities and business associates must implement to prevent unauthorized access. Further, the Connecticut Attorney General’s lawsuit against Health Net of Connecticut for failing to secure approximately 446,000 enrollees’ Protected Health Information (PHI), and to notify State authorities and enrollees of a security breach, is a reminder that breaches are not just a risk to information, but a risk to the organization.…

I read a good article on FierceEMR recently surrounding a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey on electronic medical records (EMRs) that indicated that the secondary use of this information may be an organization’s greatest asset over the next five years. An overwhelming 76 percent of respondents agreed, and pointed to the abilities for mined data to decrease healthcare costs, predict public health trends and improve patient care. EMRs, with vendors such as Allscripts, NextGen and QuadraMed blazing the trail, have been a huge focal point of healthcare payers and providers, pharmaceutical companies and the general public with healthcare reform a primary platform of the Administration.…

Theoretically, as employees go on vacation during the summer months, there will be fewer demands on your IT team. Realistically, we know that’s not true and it seems like there is actually more to do. However, summer can provide the opportunity to step back and evaluate the state of your identity and authentication management infrastructure and policies. Here are five things that are easy to overlook throughout the year that you should consider doing this summer:…

I just came back from the ASIS 2008 Show in Atlanta and boy, do my feet hurt. Over 15,000 attendees, participation in 6 booths including our own, 3 days of constant conversation will do that to a person. This security show is the top venue for those wanting to be educated on the latest in security...from state of the art manhole covers to new IP video and access control systems.…

Having spent last week at the 2008 International MUSE (Medical Users Software Exchange) Conference in Grapevine Texas - the 25th annual gathering of clinical and technical users of Meditech software - I was delighted to see SSO is such a hot topic among this group. There were five customer presentations related to SSO and Strong Authentication, and all of them were filled to capacity.…

On Wednesday, November 10th at 1:00 PM EST, I am fortunate to host Kristi Roose, IT director at Mahaska Health Partnership on a webinar where Kristi will share her insights on how to successfully deploy an EMR and help satisfy the requirements of meaningful use and the privacy and security standards embedded in the HITECH Act.…

Coming out of HIMSS 2010, it was clear that patient data security was a chief concern, but so was the need for improved clinician workflows. For all the requirements driven by new laws and the stimulus bill, what was overlooked was the impact of security in the real-world hospital environment from a user perspective. Forcing someone to change habits and daily routines is difficult, if not impossible, to do. Therefore, it is integral to the successful adoption of these security endeavors that they be paired with improving workflow. If change makes people’s lives easier, it’s easier for them to embrace. It doesn’t need to be an either/or argument.…

I just left the annual Cerner Health Conference in Kansas City, where clinical and technical users of Cerner software gather to share ideas, best practices and technology solutions that are molding the future of healthcare.…

I was reading about the recent access management related breach at the California Water Services Company, where an auditor resigned, but illegally accessed computer systems to steal more than $9 million before leaving. While the company should be lauded for catching the fraud before the wire transfers could go through and irreparable damage could be done, it should serve as another cautionary tale in what has become a recurring theme on the application security front. This is just one more saga in an every growing litany of tales of breaches that we’ve hearing about.…

I was recently asked to comment on the future of biometrics so I wanted to share my thoughts here after distilling them down into four buckets... What's Next in Adoption, What's Next in the Tech, What's Next in the Enterprise, and What's Next in Consolidation.…