SOURCE: Reconnex

August 13, 2007 08:00 ET

MedStar Health Gains Data Loss Prevention With Reconnex Solution

Reconnex iGuards Ensure Confidential Data Is Protected

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - August 13, 2007) - Reconnex, the leader in data loss prevention appliances, today announced that MedStar Health, a $3.1 billion nonprofit healthcare organization, has deployed Reconnex iGuards to increase visibility of the network and maintain the strength of the MedStar brand. The organization uses the appliances to monitor all incoming and outgoing network traffic and ensure compliance with internal acceptable-use policies as well as with the Healthcare Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA).

With seven hospitals and other healthcare services, more than 23,000 employees, and 4,600 affiliated physicians, MedStar Health is the largest health system in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area. HIPAA and MedStar Health's internal policies govern how and when patient and financial data can be shared and appropriate use of the organization's network. However, IT had only limited tools for monitoring whether sensitive data was being sent out over the network inappropriately or whether users were abusing policies against pornography, movies, MPEGs, and more. Audits could not begin to analyze the volume of information generated by more than 30,000 IP addresses across the network.

Looking for a better way to ensure data was being handled responsibly and policies were being followed, MedStar Health evaluated the Reconnex iGuard solution and found it could address the types of data leakage commonly encountered by large decentralized organizations.

"Reconnex proved to be extremely valuable from the very moment we plugged the devices into the network," said Ron Baklarz, chief information security officer, MedStar Health. "Manually searching voluminous logs and audit trails trying to decipher what's going on takes hours. The Reconnex iGuard is amazing; it not only lets me quickly view data in its original format but also automatically compartmentalizes data into categories that are important to us, such as HIPAA and GLBA. Reconnex gives us unprecedented visibility into the organization and what is going on behind the scenes, as well as far greater control over systems than we previously had."

The Reconnex Discover software module enables MedStar Health to address data-at-rest by scanning data repositories or file shares to identify and fingerprint sensitive information so that it can be protected. "We estimated that data capture and searching data at rest would require three weeks, but Discover took only 24 hours," said Chad Wilson, security analyst, MedStar Health. "We can use the Discover module for a wide range of investigative and compliance issues. Overall, the Reconnex solution allows us to be proactive about security instead of reactive. This one tool tells us who is communicating and when, where, and what they are communicating."

Click here to access the complete MedStar Health case study.

About Reconnex

Reconnex's award-winning data loss prevention appliances are designed for any organization -- including enterprises, government agencies or educational institutions -- that wants to protect its brand, maintain compliance, or secure sensitive information. Reconnex delivers accurate protection against known data-loss threats and provides the only solution that automatically learns and defends against new threats as they evolve. A privately held company based in Silicon Valley, Calif., Reconnex protects information for over one million users today. For more information about Reconnex, please visit www.reconnex.net or call 866-940-4590.