Privacy Analytics Unveils Version 2.5 of Its Unique Integrated De-identification and Intelligent Data Masking Software

Online, April 19, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Privacy Analytics Inc., the developer of the only commercially available integrated de-identification and intelligent data masking solution for the secondary use of personal health information, announces the release of PARAT 2.5 (Privacy Analytics Risk Assessment Tool).

"As the number of health applications increases dramatically, from EMRs to medical devices, there has been an acute need for good testing data. These mission and life critical applications are extremely complex and the most effective way to ensure bug-free performance on large data is to test them on realistic data sets," says Dr. Khaled El Emam, CEO of Privacy Analytics Inc.

"Despite the inherent risks, health IT vendors, CIOs and program analysts don't want fictitious data in application test and development environments because fake data does not accurately recreate situations that are seen in the field, and seeking patient consent to use real data can be costly and time consuming, if not impossible," adds Dr. El Emam. "We responded by improving PARAT's masking capabilities to handle massive and complex data sets - now we can produce realistic testing data sets that will comply with HIPAA."

PARAT 2.5 provides a powerful intelligent masking product so that organizations can avoid a reportable breach and the negative publicity and costs that accompany an investigation, breach notification and redress. The most recent study by the Ponemon Institute calculates the average cost of a data breach at $5.5 million per organization with a price tag of $194 per compromised record. The report highlighted the reality that organizations that are first-time victims pay $37 more per breached record as compared to organizations that are repeat victims.

Along with the masking enhancements, PARAT 2.5 has increased the ability to deal with longitudinal and complex relational data while maintaining referential integrity, expanded batch processing capabilities, improved import functions and enhanced task manager.

PARAT 2.5 New and Enhanced Capabilities:

1. New, Improved Masking Toolset: Now featuring advanced masking, masking propagation and compound pseudonyms
2. New Batch Processing: Batch process a complete masking and de-identification job, includes SQL Scripts, data import/export, masking and de-identification
3. New Longitudinal Suppression Algorithm: Significantly faster while lowering the amount of required suppression
4. New Longitudinal Attack Simulator: Simulate a re-identification attack on a longitudinal dataset
5. Improved Import Capabilities: More robust import functionality for large datasets in CSV and Access formats
6. Automatic Import Type Detection: PARAT will now automatically detect data types in CSV files
7. New Task Manager: Users can now view current tasks and end long-running tasks

PARAT 2.5, a Windows-based application, is compatible with a number of databases including Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server and will run on a Windows server, desktop or laptop machine. Privacy Analytics Inc. also offers an API version for developers, providing integration with other tools or workflows.

For further information and to connect with Dr. El Emam, please contact Nathalie Holmes, [email protected], (613-369-4313 x 22)