Niort Hospital: Wallix AdminBastion chosen to secure patient data
To strengthen and protect its information system, the Niort Hospital Center has implemented the Wallix AdminBastion privileged user tracking software solution. The goal? To guarantee confidentiality and control access to hospital information, both internally and externally.
“Since its implementation in 2012, the Wallix AdminBastion (WAB) solution has proven its worth,” says Soufiane Kadmiry, Director of Information Systems at the Niort Hospital Center. In less than three years, the solution has enabled Niort Hospital Center administrators to control more than 140,000 entries to their secure servers. At a time when regulatory standards and laws concerning hosted health data are multiplying, forcing institutions to maintain constant and absolute compliance, the hospital center turned to WALLIX, a French cybersecurity software publisher whose solution is CSPN certified by the French National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI).
“Our goal with this software is not only to target external service providers who might have access to patient data, but also to track all types of activity on our servers, even internally. It ensures visibility,” explains Soufiane Kadmiry.
Network Segmentation
“We have complete visibility into the IT activity of the sixty or so external service providers who perform operational maintenance on our software. Every intervention is monitored, and the providers cannot access our networks because they are restricted to a DMZ and the information we choose to share,” explains Romain Drapeau, Head of Information Systems Security at Niort Hospital. Access to servers or workstations is thus restricted by this DMZ, or “demilitarized zone,” a buffer zone between the hospital’s internal network, which houses the information to be protected, and the internet, which allows external access. WALLIX’s AdminBastion solution acts as an access and authentication portal to this “segmented” network. Each user has a unique user profile and login credentials. To ensure maximum availability, the hospital has chosen to activate the portal 24/7.
For optimal traceability, recording and storing copies of each action, sorted by date and time, in video format is also possible. Once directed to their private DMZ, to which all their VPNs (virtual private networks) are connected, each service provider connects to Wallix AdminBastion, which then acts as an authentication proxy and redirects the user to their target server based on the chosen protocols and authorizations in effect at the healthcare facility. The hospital is free to configure the frequency of password changes for users or target devices.
For enhanced security, the Wallix AdminBastion software features a new architecture that facilitates the implementation of an active/active cluster with load balancing. This allows for both the handling of significant increases in workload and easier management of server infrastructure growth.
Towards Meeting Digital Hospital Priorities
Setting priorities and 5-year objectives for all healthcare facilities regarding information system security within the framework of the Digital Hospital program, the Directorate General for Healthcare Provision (DGOS) focuses almost exclusively on confidentiality. By relying on Wallix AdminBastion to secure its data, the Niort Hospital Center (CH de Niort) was able to have its Digital Hospital application and its prerequisites validated.
The other reason that led the hospital to choose Wallix to ensure the security of its information system is its support service. A team of experts is available around the clock to intervene quickly in the event of an incident. For the IT security manager, WALLIX’s responsiveness in emergencies is a major asset for the hospital: “Since the solution’s support is located in France, it allowed us to quickly address our problems, whether during the migration phases or in the day-to-day operation of the application.”
In a context where information systems worldwide are increasingly under attack (40% of healthcare organizations were affected in 2014, and a 600% increase in the number of cyberattacks on hospitals according to an MIT study), healthcare facilities are searching for a technological solution. By adopting Wallix AdminBastion, the Niort Hospital has found the ideal shield to limit the risks of intrusions and the theft of its confidential data.