The Hospital For Sick Children Selects WinMagic SecureDoc Full-Disk Encryption

WinMagic, Inc. announced that The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Canada’s largest centre dedicated to improving children’s health, has selected WinMagic’s SecureDoc full-disk encryption software to protect hospital data. SecureDoc is being installed on more than 300 Windows laptops and the testing of the newly-released Mac version of SecureDoc is underway. In addition, SickKids is issuing MXI hardware encrypted USB keys to transfer confidential data.

Having researched available full-disk encryption solutions, SickKids selected SecureDoc, SafeBoot and Utimaco for a comprehensive ‘Proof of Concept.’ As well as scrutinizing each solution for high-level data protection capabilities, SickKids’ thorough evaluation process included testing for Windows compatibility, simplicity for the user, ability to unencrypt data, data recovery capabilities, ability to support security policy protocols, client management and monitoring capabilities, auditing and reporting capabilities and preboot authentication functionality.

“SickKids is a complex organization with unique data security requirements,” said Daniela Crivianu-Gaita, Chief Information Officer, SickKids. “SecureDoc was the only solution that integrated with our technical environment, and this was absolutely critical to the security of hospital data,” Crivianu-Gaita continued. “Administrators can manage Windows laptops as well as MXI keys from a single central console, and SecureDoc runs transparently in the background so that busy medical staff are not distracted from providing the top quality patient care for which SickKids is recognized.”

SecureDoc makes it simple for SickKids to centrally deploy enterprise-class ‘always-on’ full-disk encryption to all its physicians, administrative staff, support staff, clinical staff, IT support staff and researchers. And, in the event a staff member is unavailable, or if they have simply forgotten their password, centralized escrow and management of encryption keys ensures critical data can still be accessed – because in urgent situations access to medical data simply cannot wait for a particular person or password.

“WinMagic has developed the first full-disk encryption software that fully integrates with Windows and Mac from a central console to enable organizations like SickKids to protect all data residing on Windows laptops, Mac laptops or a combination of the two,” said Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO of WinMagic Inc. “Obviously, it is imperative that hospitals protect medical data,” Nguyen-Huu continued. “In the past, security has usually been gained at the expense of usability, but SecureDoc’s transparent operation ensures that SickKids’ laptops operate exactly the same with the encryption installed as they did without encryption – ensuring that medical staff can fully focus on looking after patients rather than securing data.”

Compatible with all editions of Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 as well as Mac and Linux platforms, SecureDoc protects sensitive data stored on servers, desktops, laptops and removable media, such as USB thumb drives and CD/DVDs. SecureDoc also supports and manages hardware-encrypted disk drives such as the Seagate Momentus FDE and BlackArmor drives, as well as the upcoming TCG Opal specification drives from other leading drive manufacturers. The resulting flexibility enables organizations to deploy any combination of hardware and software-based encryption – or transition between the two – with full transparency for end users and a consistent management interface for administrators.

Additionally, SecureDoc simplifies the deployment of any combination of sector-based full-disk encryption, file-and-folder encryption, container encryption and self-extractor encryption. This not only makes it easy for organizations to customize data protection to meet specific security protocols, but also ‘future proofs’ their investment in SecureDoc for Windows, Mac and Linux environments.

WinMagic was demonstrating SecureDoc 4.6, the first full-disk encryption solution to provide central management for Windows, Mac and Trusted Devices from a single console, at the RSA Conference.