According to Redspin consulting, as reported in infosecurity, the number of patient record breaches has doubled last year.
Redspin cites the increasing concentration of protected health information (PHI) on unencrypted portable devices and the lack of sufficient oversight of PHI disclosed to hospital’s business associates as the main reasons for the increase.
Here at Biscom, we’re definitely seeing an uptick in demand for our secure file transfer solution from our healthcare customers - there are serious consequences, both in terms of financial liability as well as reputation that are at stake. NIH, Mass General Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Medtronic, and many more healthcare organization trust us to transmit their PHI securely. Contact us if you’re facing similar issues – we can help!
Video Run Time – 2:26
Law firms face the daily task of protecting themselves and their clients from breaches of confidential data that could lead to noncompliance with government regulations, large fines, damaged reputations, and loss of business. What some firms are not aware of is that the most ordinary tools and practices – from emails to software configurations – can open a legal organization up to breaches.
Biscom is hosting a webinar on the issue of law firm security and the hidden dangers that lurk within firms. Our Legal Practice Director, Charlie Magliato, will be joined by Jeffrey Brandt, Editor of the Pinhawk Law Technology Daily Digest and noted legal technology thought leader. They will discuss the vulnerabilities posed by the proliferation of mobile devices, the consumerization of technology and cloud computing. In addition, they will also talk about the following which can be helpful to a law firm as they assess their security program:
- High-profile data breaches - law firms are no longer immune.
- Culture and technology pressures that contribute to increased risks
- The increasing demands of both national and state government regulations
- How employees, clients and vendors contribute to data breaches
- Current and emerging security best practices
Webinar Details:
Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Register Now
Biscom’s legal business continues to grow! We are pleased to announce the addition of 5 new legal clients. Our growth is the result of Biscom’s laser focus on the legal industry. During the last 2 years Biscom has collaborated with our legal clients to identify and deliver features and enhancements to better meet the secure document needs of law firms and corporate legal departments. Of particular focus for us has been the litigation and practice support groups that have a need for a high performance file and folder upload capability to support production discovery environments. We are also hearing from law firms that are increasingly concerned about the unsanctioned use of hosted file transfer services that increase the firm’s exposure to unauthorized access to confidential client data. Our strong encryption and authentication features as well as on-premise deployment are critical to helping our legal clients offer an easy to use, firm sanctioned self service secure file transfer facility to attorneys and administrative staff. And we are not resting on our laurels. Stay tuned for future announcements of product enhancements designed to improve attorney/client collaboration.
Biscom Delivery Server is now “in process” for FIPS 140-2 certification. FIPS 140-2 (Federal Information Processing Standard) certification is a US Government security standard for accrediting cryptographic modules. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the cryptography requirements in its FIPS 140-2 publication, and software like BDS must pass the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) in order to receive certification. Level 1 is geared towards software solutions, whereas level 2 is required for hardware solutions that have physical security mechanisms.
We have a lot of customers using BDS for HR – obviously HR departments have lots of personal information and they do have to work with insurance companies, health plans, payroll, etc. Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, a top law firm with offices in Washington, New York, Tampa, and Baltimore, started off using BDS in its HR department. News of the success led to the expansion of BDS to its litigation support team, and now is firm-wide.
CIO Shawn Mitowski just penned an article on FindLaw detailing how he chose Biscom’s secure file transfer solution to solve the security concerns of e-mail, and other unsecure methods to exchange documents. Big selling points were ease of use and security, as well as large file support. Thanks for the nice article Shawn!
Here at Biscom we take ILTA very seriously. After all, its members are the driving force in the evolution of legal technology. In the past year alone, we’ve exhibited at the last ILTA conference, participated in several product briefings and hosted almost a dozen roadshows on file transfer security. Now I’m excited to announce that we’ve taken the next step: ILTA has invited us to present at its 2011 conference.
The Biscom session, part of the conference’s State of the Art Technology Demos track, is scheduled for August 23 at 1:30 p.m. and will focus on the secure and audited delivery of documents and files.
The session will discuss how to:
- Secure the document exchange process
- Replace cumbersome and often unsecured FTP sites
- Offload large email attachments
- End dependence on physical media such as CDs and thumb drives
- Meet regulatory compliance
- Collaborate in a secure environment with clients and outside counsel
- Implement advanced encryption and user authentication
- Take advantage of Biscom’s integration with popular software such as SharePoint, Outlook, iManage and Litera
This is a timely decision by ILTA. News is breaking every day on the latest data breaches. These breaches mean costly fines and even more costly long-term repercussions for law firms such as hits to business development and client relations.
So if you are at ILTA 2011, join us to explore security protocols and solutions in the Canal E room of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel at 1:30 p.m. on August 23. And if you’re a Twitter enthusiast, reference hashtag #DEMO7 during the session.
We’ll see you at ILTA! Come by our booth – #113.
We got a nice mention in Law Technology News announcing three law firms – Gilbert, von Briesen & Roper, and Jackson Lewis – who all selected BDS for their secure file transfer requirements. They are using BDS for large litigation files, confidential health and estate planning documents, and like most of our customers, will find many more areas they can leverage the security and reporting capabilities of BDS.
For our healthcare readers out there, be sure to join us for a Webinar on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011, with nationally recognized security leader, Mac McMillan, CEO of CynergisTek. Avoiding data losses and security breaches should be a number one priority for hospitals and business associates dealing with private health information on a regular basis. Mac will provide an overview of:
- Encryption options
- Re-Evaluating Our Enterprise Security Standard
- Making Safe Harbor Meaningfu
Register for the webinar now.
On April 28, Biscom had the opportunity to support the 9th Annual CIO Forum. The forum, which was created by the Hildebrandt Institute and West, a Thomson Reuters business, hosted more than 30 IT leaders – a majority of which were from AmLaw 200 law firms. The event featured presentations from legal leadership at Viacom, Cisco and Microsoft – as well as Clifford Chance LLP and Bryan Cave LLP – and focused on topics such as cloud computing, outsourcing, data privacy, email management and security.
When you have this much IT leadership in one room, trends and common challenges are bound to come to the forefront. Based upon the presentations and conversations, here are some of the most prominent trends and ideas that dominated discussions:
- In spite of the recent recession, there is growth: While many law firm practice areas have experienced contraction due to the economic downturn, litigation practices (including intellectual property litigation) have experienced growth.
- Competition necessitates cost control and efficiency: With the forecast for legal industry growth trending towards flat, law firms are prompting growth by wooing clients from competitors. As a result, law firms are forced to turn a keen eye towards reducing cost and increasing efficiency to remain competitive and offer improved client-facing technologies.
- IT downsizing: While 2011 IT budgets are experiencing a modest increase, most law firms’ IT headcounts will remain stable or experience a decrease. That means doing more with fewer resources.
- In-house vs. outsourcing: CIOs are trending towards keeping core applications in-house while outsourcing content and commodity applications.
- Fixed fees: Clients are demanding alternative fee arrangements and fixed fees with incentives for exceeding performance milestones. In order to leverage profit from these arrangements, law firms again are turning towards increasing staff efficiencies and decreasing costs related to delivering services.
- Confidentiality is king: While clients these days are demanding that law firms “up the ante” when it comes to protecting their confidential data, there remains a significant lag in adopting new technology and policies to respond to this demand. Law firms, on a whole, continue to evaluate options – as opposed to executing them – to adopt policies and deploy technologies to comply with data privacy regulations. As other industries tighten their security, law firms are seen as vulnerable targets for malicious data breaches.
Do you see these trends applying to your law firm’s IT efforts? What are other trends and challenges do you think law firms are facing when it comes to IT?
Mark Haas from Massachusetts General Hospital penned an article in the April 2011 edition of the Journal of AHIMA discussing how MGH solved their release of information (ROI) problem using Biscom Delivery Server.
