HIMSS16: Protecting Medical and Personal Information

HIMSS16, the healthcare IT megashow, opens on Monday. We have blogged steadily about the importance of data security in healthcare, and how showcasing data security solutions is a major focus of HIMSS. Statistics about the vulnerability of data theft in healthcare can be dry and abstract. Headlines and bulletins warning of "large data breaches" can get tiresome.

Often it helps to understand the problem better by personalizing it. So here goes:  

Every member of my family in the past year has been notified that critical personal ID information has been exposed by third parties. You or somebody you know probably has been notified, too. If you work for or with the federal government, bank with JP Morgan Chase, have health insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield, shop at Staples, Target, Home Depot, Michaels or Albertsons, eat out at PF Changs, Jimmy John's or Dairy Queen, or if you have shipped something through a UPS Store, you may have received these warning notices recently.

In the case of my family, soon after the data breach, a serious ID theft attempt was made and we were notified. To combat this threat, we are all locking down our financial lives with serious theft-monitoring protection. We believe the personal information was gathered in one of the healthcare data breaches. So this is personal, this is serious, and this is real.

Healthcare - and all public - organizations need to redouble their efforts to protect client personal information.

It gives me great pride that my employer, NCS Technologies, is leading the efforts lock down healthcare information. NCS offers a complete portfolio of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) hardware and software to protect data. At HIMSS, we are showcasing virtual endpoint solutions.

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Healthcare Data Theft - Getting Worse, Not Better

When it comes to protecting healthcare data - patient health records and other personal secrets like Social Security numbers - this is indeed the best of times and the worst of times. It's the best of times because strong privacy regulation is in place and great technology exists to protect patient data. It is the worst of times because, well, data theft seems to be getting worse.

You need only to read the headlines. Like a recent NBC News story that says, "Hacking of Health Care Records Skyrockets". Then there is the story about Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center actually paying ransom to free up its hacked computer systems. Finally, RedSpin just released their 2015 Breach Report which shows that health information hacks are up, up, up!

And just in time, the annual HIMSS conference, the mega healthcare IT show,  kicks off in Las Vegas next week. More than 40,000 attendees will be able to evaluate solutions from hundreds of IT vendors. The point is that powerful data security solutions exist today to protect healthcare providers and customers from breaches and theft. But these solutions must be implemented.

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When it comes to locking down data, computer virtualization is a very powerful tool. IT managers are beginning to implement virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) because it decreases IT complexity and lowers costs - while delivering strong security. 

When the need arises, war fighters, first responders and industry may leverage existing organizational VDI infrastructure and expertise to meet any challenge, anywhere. NCS Technologies allows for the rapid deployment of IT infrastructure into the field without the weight and footprint of traditional solutions. NCS offers hyper-converged back-end solutions and end points intelligently integrated into rugged transit cases. These cases are capable of supporting large numbers of clients in the field without losing centralized control while simultaneously delivering ease of maintenance. This approach also simplifies the IT aspects of the reset process that must occur upon returning from deployments. Our three solutions are:

Get Work Done Away From the Office - Securely

Using the power of VDI and innovative zero client laptops from NCS, you can securely get work done even when you're away from the office. It's January and the latest winter megastorm is affecting more than 70 million people, or a third of the U.S. population. Millions of workers away from their office desks are grabbing their laptops whereever they are and using the power of virtualization to get work done securely. IT managers love virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) because it can decrease IT complexity and lower costs. But one of the most important benefits of VDI is strong security. 

With the New Year, journalists will soon begin to publish lists of the biggest data breaches of 2015. As the headlines will attest, every industry and sector is vulnerable and all continue to be hacked.

It is estimated that nearly every American had personal data stolen over the past 24 months.

IT administrators in healthcare tell us they are are focused on making computing more secure, more reliable, less complex and more cost effective - goals that make sense to everyone. 

Healthcare workers rely on computers and networking in nearly every aspect of their jobs. Patient records and scheduling need to be kept up to date and secure. Imagery such as MRIs and X-rays need to be available and accessed from distant servers. Doctors and nurses are constantly on the move and frequently use carts to bring mobile computing - and the latest patient information - directly into each patient area.

As enterprises expand their use of VDI, IT administrators seek to improve reliability and network performance, and reduce complexity and costs. 

Organizations look to implement desktop or end point virtualization for many reasons, including enhanced security, lowering costs, reducing IT complexity - even lowering energy consumption. Virtualized end points are particularly effective in meeting these objectives as infrastructure management and data are centralized in the data center.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) implementation continues to grow, but many IT managers and users still have limited experience with the technology - mostly as an immobile desktop implementation consisting of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and small desktop networking device. This description fits both thin and zero clients. In fact, thin and zero client devices may look identical. But do not be fooled!

There is excitement at VMworld 2015 around the new zero client desktop and laptop offerings from NCS. IT managers are aware that there are many end point choices in the virtualization space. People maybe most familiar with thin client solutions, such as Windows embedded products, and desktop zero clients where the OS resides in the data center.

IT managers may be less aware that zero clients today are found in the laptop/notebook form factor, which makes them much more convenient for the typical knowledge worker who needs to stay connected on a business trip, or from a home office or beach house over the weekend. 

So there has been enthusiasm for the new Cirrus LT Plus PCoIP zero client laptop. Cirrus LT Plus has a 15.6-inch high FHD display, and a full keyboard with numeric keypad. In addition, it has a primary hot-swappable battery with an additional integrated second battery for more than eight hours of continuous power. Lots of useful options include integrated smart card reader, proximity card reader, fingerprint reader, docking station, WiFi and 4G broadband. 

As you would expect, this week at VMworld 2015 in San Francisco thousands of IT managers are roaming the floor at Moscone looking for the latest innovations in virtualization. They are looking for better strategies on how to increase the penetration of VDI within organizations in a seamless and cost-effective manner. They want to improve reliability and scalability in the data center, improve network performance, and perhaps most importantly, reduce complexity and costs all the way to the endpoints.