nCircle And HITRUST Announce Security Service For Small Healthcare Providers

SAN FRANCISCO—May 19, 2011— nCircle, the leader in automated security and compliance auditing solutions, today announced in collaboration with HITRUST the debut of nCircle PureCloud™, its innovative security scanning technology, and the integration of PureCloud into the HITRUST CSF Assessments for small organizations.

As part of the HITRUST CSF Assurance Program, the CSF Assessment for small organizations was developed by HITRUST to address the increased security risk smaller organizations pose to the healthcare ecosystem. With the adoption of information exchanges and networks, and remote access to electronic health record systems, these smaller organizations represent the weakest link in the supply chain which can compromise the integrity of the entire system. The assessment service is targeted at healthcare organizations under $25 million in annual revenue. Small healthcare organizations are focused on patient care and often do not have the IT security skills necessary to adequately protect of electronic health information (ePHI) against today’s complex cyber security challenges.

The HITRUST service is the first to incorporate nCircle's new and revolutionary PureCloud scanning technology. nCircle PureCloud, the most significant new security scanning advancement in a decade, eliminates the need for firewall changes and software or hardware deployment on a customer's internal network. With PureCloud, even the smallest businesses and home offices benefit from the nCircle’s advanced enterprise-class security scanning solution, without the complexity or upkeep associated with traditional SaaS or on-premise scanning products. Requiring only a Web browser, nCircle PureCloud securely scans a private network to assess it for a broad range of vulnerabilities and risks, and provides detailed guidance on the steps necessary to reduce or eliminate those risks.

“This is a very innovative solution that uses elastic Cloud processing as a back end, while scanning networks without any special set-up, to bring a powerful but simple to use security solution to small organizations and solve a real business problem for them," said Peter Christy, principal at the Internet Research Group. “These small businesses want to be secure but do not want to have to know a lot about security. nCircle PureCloud efficiently delivers valuable, actionable and accurate information that can make them more secure while allowing them to focus on their primary business mission.”

The HITRUST CSF Assessment for small organizations incorporating nCircle’s PureCloud utilizes a simple wizard-based interface that anyone, regardless of IT security skill level, can use to maintain a healthy security posture across their entire network. nCircle PureCloud delivers accurate information about all the vulnerabilities and weaknesses on a network and prioritizes those representing the highest risk with clear guidance on how to fix them. Based on nCircle's world-class enterprise security scanning solutions used in over 5,500 enterprises worldwide, nCircle PureCloud enables the broadest discovery of networked systems and their operating systems, applications, vulnerabilities and configurations in the market today, discovering over 40,000 conditions.

“Through the collaboration with HITRUST, nCircle’s advanced solutions are now accessible by small organizations,” said Abe Kleinfeld, President and Chief Executive Officer, nCircle. “These organizations can now cost effectively achieve enterprise class levels of IT security and compliance formerly available only to large organizations.”

“The inability of many of these organizations to accurately assess and report their information protection posture poses greater risk to the entire industry with regards to the protection of health information due to the sheer volume of the data they process,” said Dan Nutkis, chief executive officer, HITRUST. “By eliminating the complexity and skills previously required to perform internal and external security scans, nCircle’s PureCloud scanning solution has removed another barrier to improved security and compliance posture in small healthcare organizations. By collaborating with nCircle, HTRUST’s new CSF assessment solution for small organizations provides an accurate and reliable assessment of an organization’s security risk.”

The HITRUST CSF Assessment for small organizations is generally available at http://www.hitrustalliance.net/selfassessment/.

About nCircle

nCircle is the leading provider of automated security and compliance auditing solutions. More than 5,500 enterprises, government agencies and service providers around the world rely on nCircle's proactive solutions to manage and reduce security risk and achieve compliance on their networks. nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership and has been ranked among the top 100 best places to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the United States and in London and Toronto. Additional information about nCircle is available at www.ncircle.com.