Healthcare IT News just published an interview with Mark Haas, associate director of health information services at Mass General Hospital, one of the premier hospitals in the world. Mark discusses how MGH implemented Biscom Delivery Server to more than double the number of release of information (ROI) requests they can handle with the same staffing. MGH is now handling 52,000 releases per year with the help of BDS.
Another interesting statistic – MGH has reduced their costs for providing these medical records to insurance companies, law firms, and others who request them from $16.08/request down to $5.61 – a 65% savings. MGH also benefits by using BDS to comply with meaningful use objectives.
To see the full case study on MGH, go here.
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) just published its March issue of Peer to Peer magazine. You’ll find an article I authored on data breaches, privacy laws, and how secure file transfer can help companies distribute their confidential information while complying with various legal requirements. You can also use this link to download the specific article as a PDF.
Up to $204 per compromised record. That’s the latest data the Ponemon Institute has collected based on their annual study. Ellen Messmer’s PC World article on the cost of data breaches again supports the notion that, just like your doctor keeps telling you, preventive strategies will save you in the long run, in more ways than one.
The article also contains a link to the 2009 Data Breach Hall of Shame, which is interesting reading. Heartland Payment Systems topped the list with 130 million records breached through SQL injection! Ouch.
Google is not infallible? That’s crazy talk. Well, this apparent leak just goes to show that no company or organization is truly safe from data breaches. This was not an intentional or malicious data breach, and most data breaches are not — it was simple human error, which is never going to be extinguished as a potential chink in a company’s data protection armor.
If Google were using Biscom Delivery Server for its secure communication however, this could have been avoided. Even if it was sent out in error (which even the best DLP solutions may not catch), the recall feature of BDS could have prevented the leak.
Read about the leak here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/186719/google_blames_human_error_for_data_leak.html
Biscom was interviewed by the Boston Business Journal a few weeks ago, and the story just came out. At a time when many high tech businesses in Boston are hurting, Biscom stands out as a profitable, growing company, and it’s nice that we’re being recognized for that.
Biscom’s roots do go back to computer fax technology (Biscom invented the category of a computer-based fax server back in 1986), but Biscom has expanded its scope to include all kinds of document delivery, including secure file transfer, workflow, imaging solutions, cloud-based offerings, VM appliances, and Fax over IP.
You can read an excerpt here, but you’ll need to register to read the full story.
I could probably keep this blog filled with all the data breaches happening these days, but that would be an exercise in futility — there are just way too many to report, and for every one reported, there are probably hundreds that aren’t.
One data breach, however seems particularly scary — President Barack Obama’s ride (when he’s not flying in Air Force One) had its blueprints and details of its avionics package leaked. Tiversa, a company that monitors P2P networks, discovered the information on an IP address in Tehran, Iran, and traced the leak back to a defense contractor’s computer in Bethesda, MD.
First, the person who installed this P2P sharing software should have known better. Second, the company should have these network sharing applications locked down, especially for anyone who has access to sensitive information. But we all know that where there’s a will, there’s a way. I’m sure this isn’t the only sensitive military secret that’s escaped from a computer on a P2P network.
Who knows what the P2P software on this computer was installed for — most likely sharing music, but what if the person used it to share legitimate business information because it was the easiest way to get his or her job done? It just goes to show you that it’s so important to have the tools in place, like a secure file transfer solution, so that employees don’t resort to non-secure methods to share information.
