Full disclosure: I'm just a medium-sized hospital's IT security guy. I've had Imprivata'sESSO appliance (three of them actually, a pair of HA, and a test box) up and running, happily, for about three years. I was invited by Imprivata and Ping Identity to participate in a panel discussion at the SSO Summit held in Keystone, CO, on July 23-25 (http://www.ssosummit.com/). Andre Durand (Ping Identity) and friends put on a very nice event. There was a good blend of topics, from SSO-centric details, to Federation issues, and a mixture of interesting case studies to visionary presenters like John Haggard (independent security consultant and long-time IT mentor) and Gunnar Peterson (Arctec Group). The event was solid throughout, but to hear John and Gunnar speak about the important issues of the past and future of SSO and IT/Web security, made the event a powerful experience not to be missed.…

Catching up on some news from last week and I thought Tim Greene’s article in Network World was an interesting piece on the Russian spy ring story that is currently grabbing headlines. One of the most glaring errors made by one of the spy defendants was leaving an imposing 27-character password written on a piece of paper that law enforcement officers found while searching a suspect's home. They used the password to crack open a treasure trove of more than 100 text files containing covert messages used to further the investigation.…

As we turn the page to 2010 and look to delve into the top–level security concerns that lie ahead, we’d be remiss not to reflect on those security events that helped shape 2009 into the ‘year of the data breach,’ and take these as learning experiences for the New Year.…

Security expert Bruce Schneier pulls out an interesting excerpt from an essay “When Security Gets in the Way” that is sparking great discussion on his Schneier on Security blog. The essay, from Don Norman’s jnd site, debates security vs. usability, and addresses design considerations for enterprise security systems. This article captures important concerns often discussed in security circles on how to make security stronger without disrupting user behavior. It’s a delicate balance – we often say the most secure computer is the one in a locked room not powered up but that would hardly be usable. At Imprivata we have always believed that usability and security don’t need to be mutually exclusive.…

The term 'security policy' used to mean different things to different people. For the facilities management department, it covers physical access points and teaching staff to lock office doors and file cabinets before leaving for the night. For the IT manager, it means keeping up to date with the latest patches and ensuring that users can only access the applications and data that they are allowed to. However, this situation is changing with IT and physical security being managed together. Although they come from separate disciplines, what these two areas have in common is policy.…

Last week, I attended the Privacy and Security Tiger Team Health Information Technology Policy (HIT) Committee Consumer Choice Technology Hearing in Washington, D.C. The gathering brought together an impressive group of healthcare industry leaders, patient data privacy advocates and HIT vendors to discuss technologies that enable consumers to choose whether or not to share their information in health Information Exchanges (HIEs). Here are few things worth highlighting from the conference...…

2009 was a tough year with the global economic downturn resulting in unprecedented workforce reductions. As a result, security risk from insider breaches has never been greater. Now, as we look to turn the page to 2010, it’s already clear that organizations will continue to go beyond the traditional levels of network access security by implementing policies that require users to provide a second form of identity to gain access to IT resources.…

At Parkview Adventist Medical Center we're very proud of our accomplishment of being only one of a handful of hospitals that have been awarded with HIMSS Analytics Stage 6 status.Moving to an EMR format and a paperless environment requires a significant commitment from the executive team and from our clinicians. As we began our move to EMR, we had two major concerns. 1 – Can we maintain patient data security and HIPAA compliance in an electronic format? 2 – Will the clinicians buy into what we’re doing and use the technologies we provide? These are two critical components in achieving Stage 6 status.…

The discussion on desktop virtualization, or hosted virtual desktop, is heating up. Some view it as futuristic. Others say it is throwback to the world of mainframe computing. With economic concerns forcing businesses to take a hard look at expenses across the enterprise, however, there are many reasons this is such a hot topic.…

Managing the Increasing Vulnerability of a Decentralized Workforce More and more companies today are enabling employees and partners to work remotely, accessing networks, data and applications from just about anywhere to be productive. Being productive is good. Behaving less responsibly is not. I was reading that Cisco Systems commissioned a survey to examine the security behavior of remote workers, and I found some of the findings startling -- here's a few that stood out for me:…

I read an interesting story over at HealthcareInfoSecurity.com highlighting the “Official Breach Tally Approaches 100”. The article includes a link to the official federal list of healthcare information breaches that was launched a few short months ago. While the article highlighted the major breaches affecting 500+ individuals as reported to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and called out 61% of incidents stemming from stolen computer devices (e.g., laptops, USB drives, hard drives etc.), many of the largest breaches involved unauthorized access. Here’s a snapshot at the major breaches stemming from unauthorized access...…

This week, Computerworld announced the honorees for its annual Premier IT Leaders awards program, and we’d like to congratulate Imprivata customer Bill McQuaid of Parkview Adventist Medical Center for making the 2010 list! Bill was recognized for his innovative approach to electronic medical records (EMR) and the significant contribution he has made to Parkview’s healthcare IT infrastructure.…

Congratulations to Imprivata customer Parkview Adventist Medical Center for recently earning the HIMSS Analytics Stage 6 designation! HIMSS Analytics highlights the Stage 6 award as recognition for hospitals that have made significant investments in healthcare IT and as well as implementing paperless medical records. This is a remarkable achievement for Parkview, considering that they’re one of only 42 hospitals out of 5,166 in the US to attain this level.…

A recent Gartner Blog Network post and Wall Street Journal article both focus on new, stricter data regulations being passed in several states, including Massachusetts. The final set of the Massachusetts regulations focus on restricting employee access to data, monitoring malicious activity on the network, and strong authentication protocols. The new regulations will go into effect beginning January 1, 2009.…

Users from temporary staff all the way up to the corner office complain about ‘drowning in security.' Why does it take four more passwords to open an email at work in some cases than to check a bank balance via the home PC? The things that make a car safe - airbags, safety glass, crumple zones, etc. - are not obvious to the driver. What lessons can we adopt from hidden security measures to make security less of a drag on employee performance?…

A nonprofit organization recently reported, over the last five years more than 45 million U.S. electronic health records (EHRs) were either lost or stolen by insiders and/or outsiders. How do we reconcile the absolute need of timely information access critical to patient welfare, while simultaneously protecting a patient’s right to privacy as granted by HIPAA and HITECH?…

Imprivata’s Geoff Hogan authored an article for Security Technology Executive last month titled, “Passwords in Peril” that delves into the password management conundrum that organizations face with the growing number of applications that employees use daily. While the article summarizes succinctly the helpdesk costs issue, employee productivity and the data security vulnerabilities that a runaway password management problem causes, it also highlights effective single sign-on (SSO) strategies and tactics to overcome these challenges. I wanted to take this opportunity to pull out a couple of SSO and Password Management best practices that Geoff covered, while adding a couple more...…

Another insider unauthorized access incident came across my radar just as I put the finishing touches on my most recent blog post highlighting Lesmany Nunez’s case being the latest example of a disgruntled employee breaching a network. As of today, the most current remote access security breach involves Danielle Duann, an IT director of a nonprofit organ and tissue donation center.…

The other week, we announced some findings from a survey conducted over the past couple of months aimed at understanding where authentication and access management sits in the eyes of those concerned with Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards (DSS). With PCI publishing the latest PCI Data Security Standard 1.2 on Oct. 1, 2008, this online survey highlighted some interesting trends as companies work toward compliance. Here are a few stats to briefly call out...…

The merger between RxHub and SureScripts has garnered extensive coverage - here,here and here, among others. This is a huge step forward for standardizing on, and speeding the adoption of, electronic prescriptions. It is significant progress, and the latest of many advancements the healthcare sector is driving forward. There is one area of the electronic prescriptions story though that is missing from all of the stories around the RxHub/SureScripts merger, though it's an important piece of the equation - authenticating that the prescription drug order is legitimate, and truly from an approved physician. Electronic transactions are easier and quicker, sure, but so is the potential for misuse and fraud.…