Hospital takes the protection of sensitive data from “risky” to “responsible”

Busy nurses and doctors at a regional hospital couldn’t keep track of all their logon passwords, causing them to write confidential data on sticky notes or require frequent IT support. Both
medical and IT staff were thrilled at how easy it was to securely store their passwords with theSphinx Enterprise software.

The Challenge

 Add secure network logon to existing building access card
The hospital already used a Mifare card for building access and wanted to leverage that card, and use it for network access as well.

Quick user switching at any network terminal
Nurses and doctors constantly need to use different applications on shared computers, and often need to use different computer terminals throughout their day.

The Solution

Already in use: Mifare card
Purchased: Sphinx Enterprise software licenses, Mifare card readers
Once the Sphinx Enterprise solution was installed on the hospital network, medical staff self-enrolled for Sphinx logon capabilities with their existing Mifare cards.

Some highlights of their solution:

Managed entries
Because the administrator manages logon entries for nurses and doctors, medical staff never need to know the actual logon data. Nurses and doctors simply present their
card and enter their PIN to logon to the network and applications.

 Fast user switching
When staff present their card and enter their PIN, they are logged on to a Terminal Services session on the network and can then use any application they require.

 Auto disconnect
When they pull their card from the card reader, a script is invoked which cleans up after their session, and they are disconnected from their Terminal Services session. They can then
present their card at any other computer on the network to open the Terminal Services session again. Not having to logon and logoff completely each time has proven to be a
great time saver for these busy nurses and doctors.

Customer Feedback

“We have used the Sphinx software for a few years and we are completely satisfied customers. When we bought the software, it was also important to us that Sphinx would fit
in to our existing Windows environment and work with our Mifare cards, so that we wouldn’t have to change what was already working well.”

“Our doctors and nurses were having such trouble remembering their logon information for all of the various applications they need to use. This was getting to be a problem, and we were
concerned that both the sensitive patient data and our network were at risk. Since we added Sphinx, the staff can go from task to task with ease, and IT support requests have gone from frequent to only occasional. We’ve received so much great feedback from the medical staff – this has provided great relief for them since their jobs are stressful enough as it is.”

“We want to also comment on how easy it was to work with the software. We use the software in server mode, and we envisioned days of setup and tricky integration. But we found setup to
be pretty simple.

• We installed the Sphinx CardMaker administration/server software on a server computer in our secure server room.
• We only had to change a few of the admin settings to make the software work the way we wanted it to, and we pre-entered some personalized logon entries.
• We did a distributed installation to install the Sphinx Logon Manager software at all of ournetwork computers.

“Daily administration of the Sphinx software is also no problem. If someone loses their card, we can put that card on the hotlist, so that it will no longer be accepted within the system. Then the staff member can self enroll with a new card, as long as they still remember their old PIN number. We can also easily add or change individual logon entries in the background as
needed, using the CardMaker software.”

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