Releases

posted on 06 May 2008 17:37

LOS GATOS, Calif., May 6, 2008 Ð Hifn (NASDAQ: HIFN), the catalyst behind storage and networking innovation, is validating its commitment to the security and data protection requirements of the health care IT industry by headlining two health care technology events this month, including a featured speaking role by the company's CTO.

A recent series of high-profile leaks at the UCLA Medical Center of the medical records of celebrity patients highlights the vulnerabilities of medical facilities that lack proper information security. It also illustrates the security challenges that health care CIOs are struggling with as the industry transitions from paper-based to electronic patient records while complying with HIPAA and other regulations.

"An increased role for IT has long been proposed as the solution to skyrocketing health care costs, but that is only the starting point in transforming the industry," said Russell Dietz, Hifn Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "There needs to be closer collaboration between the IT vendors and solution providers and health care IT professionals to help them cut through all the noise and create medical technology solutions that adequately address their business and patient care objectives while complying with government regulations for privacy and the security of patient records and other business critical information."

This week, Hifn is a sponsor of the CIO Healthcare Summit at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, where 60 of the country's top Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers and Chief Information Medical Officers from leading health care organizations such as the Tenet Healthcare Corp., Shriners Hospitals and the Baylor College of Medicine will meet to discuss their specific IT requirements.

The sessions will focus on the CIO's security and data protection challenges in the areas of Electronic Health Records, Backup and Disaster Recovery, HIPPA compliance and how Hifn's Swarm secure iSCSI storage appliances can address those issues to help the CIOs improve their IT ROI and deliver improved patient care through increased productivity in an industry known for legendary inefficiency. The three-day CIO Healthcare Summit program will consist of panel discussions, themed interactive workshops, case studies and networking sessions.

Then on May 20, Dietz will be a featured speaker at the Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR) conference at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center. Dietz will be speaking as part of the Security Measures for your Organization track with a presentation on A Risk Management Approach to Data Security - Moving beyond FUD.

Dietz will address the confusion faced by many health care IT professionals who are attempting to wade through the claims of almost 1300 companies currently selling products to address some aspect of the health care data security problem. Virtually all of them sell using fear, uncertainty and doubt to scare customers into buying their products. As a result the whole realm of data security is more infused with smoke than light. Dietz will propose a better methodology for purchasing data security technology and introduce techniques of risk management necessary to achieve data security and availability goals within limited budgets.

Hifn's Swarm Series of secure iSCSI storage appliances are the industry's only iSCSI storage arrays that provide HIPAA-compliant storage right out of the box based on the Swarm's built-in hardware data encryption. The unique features built into the Swarm storage appliances deliver a simple-to-install and easy-to-use scalable solution to address the privacy and security demands of health care organizations ranging from small medical offices to hospitals.

About Hifn
Hifn (NASDAQ:HIFN) delivers the key channel and OEM ingredients for 21st century storage and networking environments. Leveraging over a decade of leadership and expertise in the development of purpose-built Applied Services Processors (ASPs), we are a trusted partner to industry leaders for whom infrastructure innovation in storage and networking is critical to success. With the majority of secure networked communications flowing through Hifn technology, the 21st century convergence of storage and networking drives our product roadmap forward. For more information, please visit: www.hifn.com. 

^{[Formatted by Paul Warren.]}