Medical Information Protected by Barracuda NG Firewall

An essential element of the scientific work at the INM is storage and processing of person and patient-related information. Very tight legal stipulations defined by the Bavarian and Federal Data Protection Acts must be adhered to when dealing with this sensitive data. All data protective measures must stand up to an intensive discussion and examination with the controller for data protection at the University Hospital in Munich. It soon became clear to those responsible for IT at the Institute that the existing firewall solution—a pure packet filter solution—could no longer satisfy the current technical security requirements under the existing conditions. The four-man IT department at INM managed by Dr. Marc Lazarovici, M.D. began searching for a suitable alternative. The IT Team initially defined the core requirements for a new solution at the beginning of the evaluation phase. The following criteria had to be fulfilled: Increasing security standards: In addition to meeting the strict data protection law stipulations, an effective solution was required to counter the diverse attack attempts and malicious code activities. It was clear at this point that the route which the Institute for Emergency Medicine had to follow was to move away from a pure packet solution and onto an application level firewall. Secured access to the Institute’s network via VPN: The 30 full-time employees and their external colleagues should have easy access from outside onto the Institute’s network, without compromising the security. Increasing failsafe security: The new system should have a redundant concept. Several physical computers in distributed premises should be used here.

The first organization in a German-speaking university with a focus on teaching and researching emergency medicine and medicine management was founded in 2002. The INM, Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medicine Management was established as an interdisciplinary clinical organization at the Munich University Hospital by the Bavarian Ministry for Science, Research and Art. This research work involves the analysis and assessment of high volumes of patients’ data, so protecting this is a matter of the highest priority. This can only be guaranteed by a security solution that meets rigorous standards.