首頁

最新消息列表

最新消息 / NEWS

New Ways To Keep Healthcare Data Secure

- Christian Boucher

Securing patient data is a critical mission for Healthcare IT Leadership. Each and every year, countless dollars, thousands of man hours, numerous programs and myriad teams are dedicated to this charter of protecting patient and privacy information.

At Citrix, we understand. You could even say that mandating data security is in our DNA. Every product that Citrix builds reflects the core mindset ‘The Secure Delivery of Apps and Data on any device, on any network, at any time!’ It’s that simple!

In this blog post, I’d like to outline both the security that is inherently built into our XenApp and XenDesktop products and the new feature sets we continue to add throughout our product releases. This is what enables us to deliver secure data where and when you, our customers, need it.

Ease-of-use and speed-of-access have been overarching themes in ourrecent XenApp and XenDesktop releases. At the same time, we know that healthcare organizations want more control over information access than ever before.

While striking the balance between convenience and security is always challenging, Citrix is always working to make it easier for you to find that happy medium. Citrix believes—and always has—that the safest place to keep patient data is within the data center. This is the foundation our technology is built on, enabling secure access to data from the best guarded location in your organization. This leaves the guesswork out of where your data resides, and allows you to control how and where it is accessed by users in your organization.

The new copy and paste policies* enable granular control over the types of application-specific content that may or may not be copied. Previously, the choice was all or nothing in regards to disabling the copy-and-paste function, despite the fact that there are some instances in which granularity is warranted.

Here is an example: preventing an employee from copying-and-pasting patient records between two secure clinical applications might be counterproductive. However, denying a user from copying the information into a Word file or an email message on his desktop is a wise course of action. Now, a security administrator can set policies that distinguish between the types of applications for which copy-and-paste should be allowed or .

Session recording:* This function makes it possible for you to capture a complete recording of every interaction between a user and the healthcare system for later playback as a video. This tool is especially useful for spot-check audits of access to healthcare systems or for specific investigations. For example, session recording could be part of an approach used to monitor improper access to the records of celebrities staying at a facility. This feature might also be useful in training or in employee onboarding scenarios where the functionality of a particular tool or application needs to be explained step-by-step.

iOS jailbreak detection:** If the mobile operating system has been compromised, this function is particularly useful. In a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scenario, there is the possibility of an employee deliberately “jailbreaking” his device (subverting the native iOS security) to install a game or attempting to do something else that is not typically allowed under Apple’s rules. Another alternative is that a device may have been infected with malware. In a worst-case scenario, the device may have been altered by an identity thief attempting to access medical records. Whatever the reason, iOS Jailbreak detection enables IT professionals to deny access to employees or other trusted users who are attempting to interact with an untrusted device.

Self-service password*** is now is available. This feature eliminates a common reason for help desk calls. If you are using Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop virtualization in combination with Microsoft Active Directory, the Active Directory password also will be reset as a result of the user’s self-service password reset action. There are certain system requirements needed to fully leverage this capability.

If you work in an organization that is moving away from reliance on passwords, the optimized PKI based smartcard login* accelerates access when using a smartcard or other physical security token such as a badge with an embedded security chip.

These are just a few of the ways in which Citrix is working to make healthcare IT more convenient and user-friendly for hospital employees, while delivering the protection that security and compliance professionals value most. I’ll keep you updated with future enhancements as they become available.

If you are in the healthcare industry, we invite you to begin a dialog with us. You can share your thoughts on the topics in this blog or any other healthcare IT issue with a Citrix researcher by clicking here.