Swedish health care uses YubiKey for securing patient data
07 April, 2011
category: Digital ID, Health
Swedish hospitals are now using YubiKey USB authentication to meet security requirements guidelines established by the Swedish Data Inspection Agency.
Leveraging strong authentication, employees use YubiKey to securely log on to “Riks-Stroke,” the national register center for acute stroke patients. All Swedish health care providers admitting acute stroke patients participate in the program, which stores data on more than a quarter million stroke events.
The Swedish Data Inspection Agency recently audited the quality of national registers including Riks-Stroke, which was criticized for its login security routines. The Data Inspection Agency did not consider username and password to be sufficient means of authentication and required an additional level of security for login.
Developed by Yubico, the YubiKey is a battery-free and waterproof USB-key used for strong authentication to networks and services. It is designed to simplify the process of logging in with a one-time password token as it does not require the user to re-type passwords from a display device into the login field of the computer. YubiKey is inserted in the USB port of any computer and the one-time password is generated and automatically entered with a simple touch of a button on the YubiKey, without the need of any client software or drivers.