BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), the elite organization of security consultants widely known for their pioneering security research in several key technology verticals, today announced the addition of Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of The Ponemon Institute, to the advisory board of IMMUNE-SECURE, a groundbreaking research study aimed at better protecting patient health as the healthcare industry evolves to the digital era.
“Dr. Ponemon is a renowned leader and a tireless advocate for security improvements in healthcare,” says Geoff Gentry, the principal director of the ISE research study. “His expertise and perspective will be invaluable in our efforts to deliver the most effective, widespread and adopted changes throughout this critical digital economy.”
IMMUNE-SECURE is 20-month long piece of research intended to remediate the widespread security vulnerabilities that plague healthcare. “While much of the emphasis on security in healthcare to-date has focused on protecting patient data, there has been a glaring omission in the focus on protecting patient health,” explains Ted Harrington, ISE’s Executive Partner. In an effort to proactively avoid a digital attack that results in physical harm, IMMUNE-SECURE aims to drive the advancement of hospital infrastructure security by developing a uniform threat model and uniform security blueprint. The research deliverables will enable all medical facilities to harden their security posture in a more effective and less costly manner, by transforming empirical data into an empirical security blueprint.
“This study is laser-focused on protecting patients, by not just identifying the vast array of security challenges in healthcare, but also by articulating the path forward for the providers and business associates to provide better security,” states Ponemon. “As that mission dovetails so closely with my own mission, I jumped at the opportunity to join the advisory board of this landmark piece of research.”
Dr. Ponemon joins a diverse group of advisory board members, including: David Finn, Symantec’s leader of healthcare; David Watson of Ascension Health, the largest health information exchange (HIE) in Texas; Dr. Joseph Macaluso MD, a retired physician and renowned investor and advisor in healthcare technologies; Ford Winslow, a proven healthcare IT entrepreneur, who founded Abnology prior to being acquired by CentrexIT; and Shari Overstreet & Steve Zielinski of investment banker The McLean Group.
Organizations interested in participating in the study or in following updates are encouraged to contact the researchers through the study website, www.immune-secure.org. The official hashtag of the research is #movetheneedle.
About ISE
Founded in 2005 out of the PhD program at the Johns Hopkins’ Information Security Institute, ISE is a select team of hackers, computer scientists, reverse engineers, and cryptographers that utilizes a unique perspective typically perpetrated by the adversary in order to help enterprises harden systems and defend assets against sophisticated adversaries. ISE is most commonly recognized for being the first company to exploit the iPhone, as well as other high profile research surrounding ExxonMobil, Texas Instruments RFID, Android OS, Diebold eVoting Machines, and numerous others. Forthcoming ISE research surrounds security issues in healthcare, to be released in Fall 2014.
