Guest Editorial by Scot Sturges, Director of Business Development, North America, ACRE

Over the last few years, now more than ever, hospitals and other healthcare institutions have much to keep up with due to the sheer number of people circulating in and out of the facilities.

Keeping this in mind, these institutions must consider balancing their need for a welcoming environment for employees and visitors and their obligations for security and safety in the building. To accomplish this, healthcare institutions need to implement a system that can coordinate effectively through security personnel, the IT department, and the C-Suite.

3 Major Security Challenges in Healthcare

Hospitals around the globe face the overwhelming challenge of meeting the needs of a variety of people within their facilities, from the protection of patients (and their confidential information) to the well-being of staff and physicians, to the ongoing influx of visitors.

The amount of individuals entering and leaving healthcare facilities makes securing them much more difficult. Still, a perceived lack of security can be detrimental and set the tone for a patient’s visit.

Unfortunately, this balancing act isn’t where the challenges end.

Safeguarding Patients and Privacy Concerns

Strict laws and privacy regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Security Rule, are significant in deploying and financing security solutions in the healthcare industry. Healthcare providers must balance the demand for privacy with ensuring high levels of safety.

Network safety threats disproportionately impact healthcare institutions and reveal private patient data, so a focus on boosting cybersecurity is paramount.

It’s important to note that powerful solutions that integrate access control and video surveillance are vital, as these systems are valuable in facilitating the investigation process.

Regulations and Compliance

Following privacy laws is paramount to compliance, and physical security systems must consider these regulations to protect patient identity and confidentiality. Role-based access control that guarantees the right individuals access to critical areas, patient files, and data goes a long way in achieving this.

Additionally, having a system that will enable security officials to convey these regulations efficiently via an easy-to-use interface is the key to sticking to healthcare facilities’ procedures.

(HIPAA regulations require companies to regularly review all information system activities, including those within their audit logs and access reports, typically by using a Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) solution. ‘ASTORS’ Award Winner SolarWinds  Security Event Manager (SEM) helps streamline this process by allowing you to forward audit logs from all of your applications, servers, network devices, routers, and beyond directly to its platform. Here, you can easily monitor and analyze real-time log data and report on system activity. Keeping everything housed in a single, easy-to-access location can help boost productivity and avoid having to manually pull logs from individual systems. Courtesy of SolarWinds and YouTube.)

Database Upkeep

Enterprise facilities with numerous sites and occasionally thousands of workers entering and leaving the facility at any given moment can be bulky to manage, particularly when dealing with data input and output that licenses and restricts access.

Human resources and security leaders must cooperate to ensure the right person is granted the proper access level for their position. Otherwise, the healthcare facility might open itself up to unnecessary liability.

The Solution

How, then, should healthcare institutions address these problems? Over the last few years, the development of the cloud cannot be ignored. Cloud-based access control and open API architecture solutions can help these institutions keep up with their ever-expanding needs to protect their patients, staff, and private data.

With solutions like security management systems that can integrate a facility’s digital video, alarm management, and access control technologies, this creates a single and streamlined approach for the healthcare facility that will scale with ease as changes are implemented. By deploying this type of system, we can scale it to fit virtually any institution regardless of size and simultaneously service multiple sites.

Certain solutions can also address several other data management and security issues through options like remote management and open API, and flexible access control systems.

For instance, the ability to lock down an area at the push of a button can be critical for medical institutions, especially in nursing homes, where patients, visitors, or staff may need to be granted or denied access to certain facilities at a moment’s notice.

According to HIPAA, cloud-based access control creates an opportunity to secure patient data, protecting the confidentiality and integrity of electronically guarded health information.

To comply with this, a cloud-based access control system could be integrated into the iris or fingerprint scanners that some institutions use to ensure that confidential data stays guarded and manages video data and alarm systems under a single, streamlined design.

For healthcare institutions to take their security and data management to the next level, they must be able to act quickly and effectively, and an open API or cloud-based access control system is the best way to do so.

By giving security personnel the ability to lock down portions of a building at the push of a button or communicating quickly through an easy-to-use interface, we can help these institutions meet their security needs according to the rules and regulations set in place more efficiently than ever before.

About the Author

Scot Sturges is the Director of Business Development for ACRE North America and is based out of Addison, Texas.

He is responsible for identifying new areas of growth and business opportunities for the ACRE portfolio brands.

With over 14 years of experience, Scot is an integral part of the organization and continues to drive key client relationships.

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American Security Today’s Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program, and now in its Seventh Year, continues to recognize industry leaders of Physical and Border Security, Cybersecurity, Emergency Preparedness – Management and Response, Law Enforcement, First Responders, as well as federal, state and municipal government agencies in the acknowledgment of their outstanding efforts to Keep our Nation Secure.

SolarWinds Worldwide (Second of Three)

• Best Network Security Solution

• • • SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager

• Successful threat mitigation requires continuous real-time monitoring of network configuration changes and potential policy violations, and alerts for automated detection and remediation of harmful security violations is essential.

• SolarWinds® Network Configuration Manager (NCM) offers compliance auditing and leverages baselines and differential viewers to help ensure that devices are configured correctly, with an automated change control workflow, bulk configuration updates, and automatic vulnerability assessments to help teams efficiently identify and fix vulnerabilities – all in a single solution.

• NCM offers several unique and powerful features to help agency IT professionals protect against vulnerabilities and prevent unauthorized network configuration changes, and uses Cisco® IOS® and ASA vulnerability scanning and NIST FISMA, DISA STIGs, and DSS PCI compliance assessments to improve network security.

• The software itself features hundreds of built-in compliance reports to help meet major auditing authority requirements, including DISA STIGs, NIST FISMA, and more, and THWACK®, SolarWinds’ online user community, provides a number of free report templates that can be used to prepare for an inspection.

• NCM is built for IT environments of all sizes and can easily scale to meet growing infrastructure needs. Licensing depends on the total number of devices an IT pro manages, including firewalls, routers, switches, or any other device that supports remote access and a command line interface.

(Increase visibility to your network devices with SolarWinds® Network Configuration Manager. Save time and improve network reliability by automating network configuration and change management to reduce configuration errors, recover quickly from downtime, and improve security and compliance. Courtesy of SolarWinds and YouTube.)

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• Best IT Access Control & Authentication System

• • • SolarWinds Access Rights Manager

• SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) is designed to assist IT and security admins to understand and act on high-risk access and minimize the impact of insider threats.

• SolarWinds ARM enhances security by monitoring, analyzing, and auditing Active Directory®, Azure AD, Exchange™, SharePoint, OneDrive, and file servers to see what changes have been made, by whom, and when those changes occurred, and customized reports can be generated to demonstrate compliance with most regulatory requirements.

• The solution also provisions and deprovisions users using role-specific templates to help assure conformity of access privilege delegation in alignment with security policies.

• ARM helps prevent data leaks and unauthorized changes to sensitive files and data through visualization of permissions on file servers. 

• SolarWinds ARM reduces IT workload through a web-based self-service portal, put access rights of data in the hands of data owners instead of admins.

(SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) helps IT and Security Admins meet compliance requirements with centralized provisioning, de-provisioning, management, and audit of user permissions and access to systems, data, and files while protecting their organizations from internal security breaches. Courtesy of SolarWinds and YouTube.)

• *SolarWinds has now been recognized with Multiple Awards in all Six Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Programs.

The United States was forever changed 20 years ago on September 11th, and we were fortunate to have many of those who responded to those horrific tragedies join us at the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Luncheon.

In the days that followed 9/11, the critical needs of protecting our country catapulted us into new and innovative ways to secure our homeland – which is how many of the agencies and enterprise organizations that are today ‘ASTORS’ Awards Champions, came into being.

Our 2021 keynote speaker featured a moving and informative address from TSA Administrator and Vice-Admiral of the United States Coast Guard (Ret), David Pekoske; to our attendees who traveled from across the United States and abroad, on the strategic priorities of the 64,000 member TSA workforce in securing the transportation system, enabling safe, and in many cases, contactless travel.

Legendary Police Commissioner William Bratton of the New York Police Department, the Boston Police Department, and former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department was also live at the event, meeting with attendees and signing copies of his latest work ‘The Profession: A Memoir of Community, Race, and the Arc of Policing in America,’ courtesy of the generosity of our 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Premier Sponsors.

The 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program is Proudly Sponsored by New PLATINUM SPONSOR: NEC National Security Systems (NSS), New Premier Sponsors Rajant Corporation, and guardDog AI, and returning Sponsors to date, Automatic Systems, RX Global, and SIMS Software!

The continually evolving ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program will emphasize the trail of Accomplished Women in Leadership in 2022, as well as the Significance and Positive Impact of Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in our Next Generation of Government and Industry Leaders. #MentorshipMatters

So be on the lookout for exciting upcoming announcements of Speakers, Presenters, Book Signing Opportunities, and Attendees at the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon in November of 2022 in New York City!

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.

Comprehensive List of Categories Include:

Access Control/ Identification	Personal/Protective Equipment	Law Enforcement Counter Terrorism
Perimeter Barrier/ Deterrent System	Interagency Interdiction Operation	Cloud Computing/Storage Solution
Facial/IRIS Recognition	Body Worn Video Product	Cyber Security
Video Surveillance/VMS	Mobile Technology	Anti-Malware
Audio Analytics	Disaster Preparedness	ID Management
Thermal/Infrared Camera	Mass Notification System	Fire & Safety
Metal/Weapon Detection	Rescue Operations	Critical Infrastructure
License Plate Recognition	Detection Products	COVID Innovations
Workforce Management	Government Security Programs	And Many Others to Choose From!

Don’t see a Direct Hit for your Product, Agency or Organization?

Submit your category recommendation for consideration to Michael Madsen, AST Publisher at: mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.

In 2021 over 200 distinguished guests representing Federal, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Firms gathered from across North America, Europe, and the Middle East to be honored among their peers in their respective fields which included:

• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• ICE Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI)
• Customs & Border Protection (CBP)
• The Federal Protective Service (FPS)
• Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
• DHS Science & Technology (S&T)
• The National Center for Disaster Medicine & Public Health (NCDMPH)
• The American Red Cross
• The InfraGard National Alliance
• The Metropolitan Police (MPD)
• The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA)
• Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS)
• The Federal Air Marshals Service
• The San Diego Harbor Police Foundation, and Many More!

Corporate firms, the majority of which return year to year to build upon their record of accomplishment include:

AlertMedia, Allied Universal, AMAROK, ATI Systems, Attivo Networks, Axis Communications, Automatic Systems of America, BriefCam, Canon U.S.A., Fortior Solutions, guardDog.ai, Hanwha Techwin of America, HID Global, Mark43, IPVideo Corporation, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Lumina Analytics, NEC National Security Systems, NICE Public Safety, OnSolve, PureTech Systems, Quantum Corporation, Rave Mobile Safety, Regroup Mass Notification, Robotic Assistance Devices, Rajant Corporation, SafeLogic, Senstar Corporation, ShotSpotter, Singlewire Software, SolarWinds Worldwide, Teledyne FLIR, Valor Systems, and Wiresecure, just to name a few!

Why American Security Today?

The traditional security marketplace has long been covered by a host of publications putting forward the old school basics to what is Today – a fast-changing security landscape.

American Security Today is uniquely focused on the broader Homeland Security & Public Safety marketplace with over 75,000 readers at the Federal, State, and local levels of government as well as firms allied to the government.

American Security Today brings forward a fresh compelling look and read with our customized digital publications that hold readers’ eyes throughout the story with cutting-edge editorial that provides solutions to their challenges.

Harness the Power of the Web – with our 100% Mobile Friendly Publications

AST Digital Publications are distributed to over 75,000 qualified government and homeland security professionals, in federal, state, local, and private security sectors.

‘PROTECTING OUR NATION, ONE CITY AT A TIME’

AST Reaches both Private & Public Experts, essential to meeting these new challenges.

Today’s new generation of public safety and security experts need real-time knowledge to deal with domestic and international terrorism, lone wolf attacks, unprecedented urban violence, shifts in society, culture, and media bias – making it increasingly difficult for Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Military and Private Security Professionals to implement coordinated security measures to ensure national security and improve public safety.

These experts are from Government at the federal, state, and local level as well as from private firms allied to the government.

AST provides a full plate of topics in our AST Monthly Magazine Editions, AST Website, and AST Daily News Alerts, covering 23 Vital Sectors such as Access Control, Perimeter Protection, Video Surveillance/Analytics, Airport Security, Border Security, CBRNE Detection, Border Security, Ports, Cybersecurity, Networking Security, Encryption, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Campus Security, Security Services, Corporate Facilities, and Emergency Response among others.

AST has Expanded readership into integral Critical Infrastructure audiences such as Protection of Nuclear Facilities, Water Plants & Dams, Bridges & Tunnels, and other potential targets of terrorism.

Other areas of concern include Transportation Hubs, Public Assemblies, Government Facilities, Sporting & Concert Stadiums, our Nation’s Schools & Universities, and Commercial Business Destinations – all enticing targets due to the large number of persons and resources clustered together.

(See just a few highlights of American Security Today’s 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon at ISC East. Courtesy of My Pristine Images and Vimeo.)

To learn more about ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Award Winners solutions, please see the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ CHAMPIONS Edition Fully Interactive Magazine – the Best Products of 2021 ‘A Year in Review’.

The Annual CHAMPIONS edition includes a review of Annual ‘ASTORS’ Award Winning products and programs, highlighting key details on many of the winning firm’s products and services, including video interviews and more.

It serves as your Go-To Source throughout the year for ‘The Best of 2021 Products and Services‘ endorsed by American Security Today, and can satisfy your agency’s and/or organization’s most pressing Homeland Security and Public Safety needs.

From Physical Security (Access Control, Critical Infrastructure, Perimeter Protection, and Video Surveillance Cameras and Video Management Systems), to IT Security (Cybersecurity, Encryption, Data Storage, Anti-Malware and Networking Security – Just to name a few), the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ CHAMPIONS EDITION has what you need to Detect, Delay, Respond to, and Mitigate today’s real-time threats in our constantly evolving security landscape.

It also includes featured guest editorial pieces from some of the security industry’s most respected leaders, and recognized firms in the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program.

• For a complete list of 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Award Winners, begin HERE.

For more information on All Things American Security Today, as well as the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program, please contact Michael Madsen, AST Publisher at mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.

AST strives to meet a 3 STAR trustworthiness rating, based on the following criteria:

• Provides named sources
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