Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)

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Chapter 11 DICOM Security
All external connections to your network should go via a VPN or a similar
data-encrypting channel. Your computers should be located behind a firewall.
In case you are not familiar with the difference between a VPN and a firewall, it
is shown in a nutshell on Fig. 78. A firewall only protects each computer from
prohibited external access (hacking), while a VPN protects the entire communication
between two computers (network). If you rely on a firewall only
(which is often the case), data sent from your computer to another over a public
network is still unsecured, and can be potentially intercepted and compromised.
VPN will encrypt the data when it is being transmitted, thus protecting
it from any unauthorized access.
Just log onto my server
A popular way of sharing imaging data, especially for small teleradiology
projects, is allowing your business partner or offsite radiologist log onto
your imaging server remotely to view images. Do not do this. It is indeed
the easiest way to view your images remotely. It is also the easiest way to
compromise your security and to kill your entire business with a couple
of misplaced mouse clicks. Please invest in a well-structured teleradiology
system from the start.
Did I forget to mention power backups, access logs, and antivirus software?
Computers, automatically locking screens after some 15-min timeout? We do
not want to go into the depths of network security in this medical imaging
book, so here comes the most important advice: There is no way a contemporary
medical imaging enterprise of any size can function without a cautious, welltrained
network/system administrator. The sooner you hire one, the better.
Fig. 78 VPNs and firewalls. While firewalls protect computers, VPNs protect entire
networks