Maintaining security in clinical laboratory IT solutions

Best practice guidance from the MEDEA+ Trusted Secure Computing (TSC) initiative outlines some of the ways in which clinical laboratory IT solutions may be secured as part of day-to-day habits.

However, the project also goes further than that, looking at ways in which security can be incorporated into IT equipment at the hardware and even component level.

"Protection mechanisms must be present in all system layers, from basic hardware to the basic input-output system and including the operating system," argues Jean-Pierre Tual, MEDEA+ TSC leader and director of industrial relations at Gemalto, a global digital security specialist which is working on the initiative.

For clinical laboratory IT solutions already in place, identity management systems which prevent unauthorised access to data could be one way to ensure sensitive information remains safe.

The EUREKA Network, which is coordinating the MEDEA+ TSC scheme, suggests that password protection before applications can be accessed is "exactly the kind of measure" that is needed to maintain desirable security levels in a "complex cyberspace".