TENAFLY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SAFE-BioPharma Association today announced that Aetna, one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, has become its most recent member. It is the first health care benefits company to join the association. Aetna will now have access to the SAFE-BioPharma standards®, which provide fundamental protection against cyber security breaches through robust identity trust standards and related services. Weak identity trust is responsible for 81 percent of data breaches, according to the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Report.
Compliance with the SAFE-BioPharma standards provides high assurance that every cyber identity can be trusted to represent the true identity of its owner. The standards create an Identity Trust Ecosystem in which each user’s identity can be trusted by all participants in the system and by other recognized systems, including all U.S. Government agencies. These standardized identities serve as an “internet passport.”
Aetna’s global health care network of health care professionals serves more than 44 million members each year.
“We believe compliance with the SAFE-BioPharma standards are an important defense against hackers and potential breaches,” explained Jim Routh, Chief Security Officer, Aetna. “Their strict identity-proofing requirements and use of two-factor authentication before a credential is allowed to cross a firewall, provide a fundamental level of Internet security.”
As reflected in its name, the SAFE-BioPharma standards were started by the global pharmaceutical industry to help it collaborate securely over the Internet. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency participated in its creation. Over the past dozen years, the standards have contributed to a global identity trust ecosystem in which hundreds of participating organizations can collaborate without fear of being penetrated by rogue players.
“What has worked for the global pharmaceutical industry will work for the healthcare sector,” said Mollie Shields-Uehling, president and CEO, SAFE-BioPharma Association. “We welcome Aetna’s leadership in this area.”
In addition to authenticating individual identity to participating computer systems, the SAFE-BioPharma standards can allow individuals to apply digital signatures to electronic documents. Unlike common electronic signatures, digital signatures assure trust in the identity of the signatory and cannot be denied in a court of law. Their use also protects the integrity of signed documents. Any change at any time renders the document invalid.
Major collaborative research platforms in the life sciences (e.g. Merck’s EngageZone, TransCelerate’s Shared Investigator Platform, and Exostar’s Life Science Federated Identity Hub) rely on the use of SAFE-BioPharma compliant identity credentials for trusted access to thousands of participating companies.
About SAFE-BioPharma
The SAFE-BioPharma® standards for digital identity and digital signatures are used in life science and health care.
SAFE-BioPharma® is a trademark of SAFE-BioPharma Association. Use of this trademark requires approval from SAFE-BioPharma Association.
