Smart cards to protect against data breaches

In response to the growing threat of medical identity theft, the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council is calling for two-factor authentication for health IT systems, with--you guessed it--smart cards as one of the authentication factors. While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increases some HIPAA penalties and requires patients to be notified when they are victims of data breaches, the 2009 law does not do much to help victims recover from identity theft. "The healthcare industry also needs policy that takes a proactive approach--one that implements controls and technology that assure patient information is always protected. It needs to make secure electronic medical identities a priority," the alliance says. Issue brief

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