Business News

Entrust IdentityGuard Enables Georgia-based Hospital Network to Deploy Strong Authentication for Remote Access

2008-08-19 07:00:00

    Grid card deployment saves hospital money, enables more wide-spread

                     authentication for network access



    DALLAS, Aug. 19 /EMWNews/ -- To comply with HIPAA

regulations, the Georgia-based Gwinnett Medical Center already was

leveraging two-factor authentication via hardware tokens in order to

protect patient files, sensitive medical data and clinical information. The

solution, however, was cost-prohibitive to deploy to a wider audience and

cumbersome for the medical staff to use. To address these concerns,

Gwinnett Medical Center (GMC) turned to Entrust, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTU) and

the Entrust IdentityGuard versatile authentication platform, a cornerstone

of a layered security approach.



    "From a cost perspective, it was just hard to top the versatility and

strength of the Entrust IdentityGuard authentication solution, but the

usability for our staff members really put the Entrust solution over the

top," said Rick Allen, IT director at Gwinnett Medical Center. "We now are

able to save money across the board and deploy strong enterprise

authentication for a larger group of users, and the employees can just

carry the grid cards with their ID badges, which makes them much easier to

keep track of than a key-fob token. In addition, the platform supports a

wide array of authenticators that, in the future, can help us secure a

variety of applications that also house sensitive patient information."



    Facilitated by trusted partner PossibleNOW, Entrust IdentityGuard with

one of its innovative authentication capabilities, grid cards is now used

to authenticate GMC doctors and staff who wish to remotely access the

corporate network via SSL VPN. Gwinnett will initially deploy grid cards to

be deployed to 1,500 current users, who are being migrated to the new

system as their current tokens expire. The solution may be expanded to

secure as many as 3,000 users in the future.



    "The importance of protecting sensitive patient information is obvious,

but Gwinnett Medical Center should be applauded for implementing an easier,

more cost-effective authentication platform to assist in their compliance

with regulatory requirements," said Entrust Chairman, President and Chief

Executive Officer Bill Conner. "Not only are they solving this current pain

point and reducing cost, they're implementing a comprehensive versatile

authentication platform with capabilities to help address a variety of

security challenges that they may experience in the future."



    Entrust IdentityGuard's gird card is a secure and simple form factor

that is easily stored, carried and produced. In addition, PossibleNOW

created a custom card-production application that allows the hospital to

easily print, distribute and manage the card-production process in-house,

helping to further reduce cost and streamline protocol. The Atlanta-based

security vendor provides consulting services and designs, develops and

implements online applications.



    Gwinnett Medical Center also plans to leverage the Entrust versatile

authentication platform to help secure access to a Web-based physician

portal application.



    Entrust IdentityGuard enables organizations to layer security --

according to access requirements or the risk of a given transaction --

across diverse users and applications. The platform's authentication

options include username and password, IP-geolocation, machine/device,

questions and answers, out-of- band one-time passcode (delivered via voice,

SMS or e-mail), grid cards and a range of one-time-passcode tokens. Entrust

IdentityGuard also provides multiple methods of supporting mutual

authentication, including picture and caption replay.



    With a flagship facility in Lawrenceville, Ga., Gwinnett Medical Center

is a not-for-profit healthcare network that provides an array of

high-quality services and facilities to both Lawrenceville and Duluth,

which anchor the Gwinnett region in Georgia. Tracing its heritage back more

than 60 years, the Gwinnett Medical Center includes three hospitals plus

additional supporting medical facilities, which are serviced by more than

4,300 employees and 800 affiliated physicians. In 2007, GMC provided care

to more than 400,000 patients.



    About Entrust



    Entrust (Nasdaq: ENTU) secures digital identities and information for

consumers, enterprises and governments in more than 1,700 organizations

spanning 60 countries. Leveraging a layered security approach to address

growing risks, Entrust solutions help secure the most common digital

identity and information protection pain points in an organization. These

include SSL, authentication, fraud detection, shared data protection and

e-mail security. For information, call 888-690-2424, e-mail

[email protected] or visit http://www.entrust.com.



    Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States

and certain other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark

of Entrust Limited. All Entrust product names are trademarks or registered

trademarks of Entrust, Inc. or Entrust Limited. All other company and

product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective

owners.





Major Newsire & Press Release Distribution with Basic Starting at only $19 and Complete OTCBB / Financial Distribution only $89

Get Unlimited Organic Website Traffic to your Website 
TheNFG.com now offers Organic Lead Generation & Traffic Solutions





























Jerry Cruz

Tops SEO Expert, Social Media Influencer and Editor. Having published and edited more than 4700+ Articles in the last 6 years definately a PRO!

Related Articles

Back to top button