Medical Network Security

What is medical network security?



Because the doctors are reliable to keep the patient's medical information safe, they must have good quality securities. This will especially be used when files are transfered through the network. The hospital and the doctors must be careful of external attackes such from hakcers to mainitan the private information safe. This is advantageous because the data will be secure and this will prevent privacy issues. However, this is sometimes disadvantageous because the doctors must maintain these medical network security, which may be time consuming. Here are some software that are used to ensure network security:




Firewalls


Generally speaking, firewalls are in every computers. This is a software that prevents and blocks malicious virus or any other unauthorized access to enter the computer. The hospitals and doctors must have updated high quality firewalls so that the precious data will be safe from external attacks. At the same time, important and needed information can enter the computer. This is called filtering information.



Anti-virus software

Similar to the firewall, anit-virus software detect, prevent, and eliminate malware that is entering the computer. This is one way of maintaining security of the data. If the computer is Windows, one typical anti-virus software is "Norton Anti-virus Software". Therefore, just as firewalls, the hosptial must update these vital software.


Virtual private network

Virtual private network (VPN) is a network that uses public telecommunictaion such as the Internet to give security to users who are in remote areas. In this way, the patients can access the hospitals networks safely. The data will be secure when the files are transfered throught the Internet. By encrypting the data, the information cannot be viewed by other users who are not authorized to it. The advantage to this VPN is that they provide good security with low cost.


Here is a video that explains further about VPN and talks about the IPSec: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEVILmhg9Cg


Authentication

Users must input their password and user name in order to access ther online account through the network from remote areas. In this way, authentic patients and doctors can only have access and is able to eliminate the other unauthorized users.





Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall http://searchenterprisewan.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid200_gci213324,00.html http://www.howstuffworks.com/vpn.htm