A regional charitable trust that provides residential care and education for people in the south-west of England with autism and Asperger’s syndrome has implemented a document security system which is also used by the military. Spectrum, also known as Devon and Cornwall Autistic Community Trust, operates around 23 homes across the south-west of England and employs around 300 staff. The system, iSentry Digital Content Exchange, resides on a server from which individual computers can download encrypted files. It aims to both improve access to records and increase security. Tim Bowman, Business Development Manager at manufacturers UIG, told E-Health Insider that Spectrum needed the system for a number of reasons: “Their main concern was the ability of staff to interact and exchange electronic information securely." “Care standards require you to have access to records if they do a stock check," explained Bowman, saying that because the system and the documents are centrally located, authorised staff at any Spectrum location are able to access them. As well as the connections being secured by 128-bit SSL, each document is also encrypted on the server to prevent intrusion. Chief Executive of Spectrum, Mary Simpson, explained why the software was installed: “We have many homes in remote locations and we had been looking for a way to leverage the internet without compromising data confidentiality and our adherence to UK care standards best practice. From the outset, we realised that standard email could not be used, as it is inherently insecure." UIG, who supply the document security software, have their head offices based in the US. The iSentry system is also used by many financial companies.
