Disaster Recovery White Papers

Tripwire Software Protects Data And Network Integrity, Helps Healthcare Systems Meet HIPAA Privacy And Security Standards

• Tags:
• disaster recovery,
• stored,
• act,
• healthcare

Overview Best practices for assuring both data and network integrity differ little from industry to industry. Any organization managing critical electronic information understands the importance of protecting their data and networks from intrusion and abuse.

Healthcare providers face particularly difficult challenges due to the sensitive nature of the data they are responsible for safeguarding. In their environment, corrupted data can have grave consequences. Recognizing this gravity, legislators have taken steps to make the security and privacy of healthcare data a legal requirement.

The result of their concern is a broad new regulatory initiative that protects the confidentiality and integrity of electronically-stored personal health information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) set in motion the process of establishing privacy and security standards for individually identifiable health information1. Meeting these standards demands due diligence from data and network managers throughout the healthcare industry.

Fortunately, there are many software and tools available today that will help protect this sensitive data, and assist healthcare organizations in getting a head start with their compliance. One of the tools necessary to meet these requirements is readily available to Information Technology (IT) managers. The Tripwire® software line of data integrity assurance products verifies the integrity of data at rest and notifies system administrators of any changes to data or system files. Patient data that is stored on servers, in databases, and required to be kept confidential can be monitored to a level of stringency that the IT manager desires. This means that unwanted changes to the data can be detected and corrected in acceptable time frames.

In addition, Tripwire software can act as a monitor to other critical healthcare systems such as firewalls and network intrusion detection appliances, ensur

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