Appendix C: Recommended Hardware Configurations

OVERVIEW

The following are 7 of the most common and critical hardware devices that may be part of a medical center Information Systems environment and are of the highest concern and applicability to HIPAA Security regulations for systems certification and accreditation:

• Routers

• Firewalls

• VPN

• Windows-based Web Servers

• Windows-based Mail Servers

• Wireless Access Points

• Modems

The testing of these devices to prevent intrusion and the certification by medical center or hospital management is the key to HIPAA Security compliance. While there are other network devices such as switches, hubs and intrusion detection systems that are critical to network security and need to be a part of an assessment process, the focus of this paper is the above devices which are accessed from the outside world and will be the first targets of attempts at unauthorized access.