Security Goes The DistanceSecurity Goes The Distance

A variety of technologies can give users access to a computer or network, including smart cards, passwords, fingerprint readers, and tokens. But none of them can prevent a user from walking away from the computer and forgetting to log off, perhaps exposing crucial information to whoever walks by.

That's unacceptable in industries such as health care, which faces strict new rules on data security. When Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., recently decided to give its clinical staff access to PCs throughout the hospital, including the emergency room, Dr. Jeffrey Zaks, VP of medical affairs and chief medical officer at the hospital, knew he needed to find an easy way to give the doctors access and comply with privacy and security regulations in the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. "Doctors didn't like always having to type in passwords," Zaks says.

Providence Hospital decided to use proximity badges, which activate the appropriate application when a doctor approaches a terminal and shut down the app when the physician steps away from the PC. "In real life, it works," Zaks says. "I was pleasantly surprised. We set it so when the doctor is a foot away from the system the PC exits the application."

Providence is using the XyLoc MD application from Ensure Technologies Inc., which includes a radio transceiver, or lock, on the computers and the key, a badge with a radio transmitter that's worn by medical personnel. When a doctor approaches a computer, the badge transmits a unique 32-bit encrypted ID code. Once the XyLoc administration software identifies the doctor, the system and appropriate apps are unlocked. Providence first deployed XyLoc MD for 25 doctors in the emergency room. "If it can work in an emergency room, it can work anywhere," Zaks says.

During the next several months, the hospital plans to deploy the system to more than 800 doctors and 150 residents who share hundreds of workstations. The cost for a typical 1,000-user implementation is about $150,000.