Government gets ready for HIPAA
 
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The federal government has long been concerned about security and over the past eight months, that interest has intensified. According to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan, the government had already been interested in VPNs as an option for security and that interest is likely to grow.
Federal regulations about securing healthcare information, known as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that medical entities protect patient record privacy. While the standard for doing that is a moving target, it is widely agreed that IPSec VPNs fit the bill.
The Security Act, which is an update of the federal paperwork reduction act, demands that all federal agencies come up with security policies for their information systems. VPNs could play a key role there as well.
In addition, federal legislation has made it possible for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to have more say in federal computer security. This will beef up an earlier act on federal information security and privacy, says the report. " Both of these acts will continue to drive implementations of VPN technology in the Government sector, " wrote the report's author Jason Wright, industry analyst/program leader at Frost & Sullivan's security technologies group.
There is federal certification for whether security products meet standards, and those that make the grade are awarded Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-1 certification. Corporate networks need not require that gear they use meet FIPS 140-1, but the certification certainly doesn't hurt.
This report includes a lot of other information, ranging from market analysis, comparison of technologies and forecasts of who will sell how much of what gear.
Anybody interested can contact Jason_Wright@frost.com. Don't write to me. I'll just send you the same address.
RELATED LINKS
To your health
Network World VPNs Newsletter, 09/05/01
To your health, revisited
Network World VPNs Newsletter, 09/24/01
Big net names push security wares
Network World, 05/13/02
Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering virtual private networking gear, remote access, core switching and local phone companies. You can reach him at tgreene@nww.com.
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