NW_20000928_en_Daily Herald, September 28, 2000_ "Oakbrook Terrace Firm to Safeguard Military Medical Files"

The Oakbrook Terrace company has won a $7.3 million contract with the Department of Defense to provide security for the computerized medical files of more than 2 million military personnel on active duty around the world and their families, including civilian employees, as well as military retirees.

VASCO's software, called SnareWorks, will act as a gatekeeper within the various databases and software programs that make up the military's network of medical information.

That network gives more than 100,000 medical workers, including nurses and physicians, access to the records of various patients from the presidents who are treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda down to enlisted men on an aircraft carrier at sea, said Jonathan Chinitz, who is vice president and general manager at VASCO.

The trick is making sure people have access only to the information they are entitled to see. A doctor treating a corporal for pinkeye shouldn't, and won't, have access to the president's health history.

"We sit in the middle and intercept data to make sure the people are authorized," Chinitz said.

The security system also will keep the information safe from interlopers outside the military as data is transmitted to various sites around the world.

The advantage of SnareWorks is that it can be integrated into a system as multi-layered and complex as the one at the Department of Defense, Chinitz said.

"We're talking about 20 years of applications and software from over 60 different systems," Chinitz said.

SnareWorks can begin acting as a security agent without hindering existing network operations.
Chinitz hopes the company's security system also can be useful in the private sector's health records systems.

"Everyone needs health care and there are only so many medical billing systems," Chinitz said.