PKWARE Introduces PKZIP Security-Enabled Solutions to the Healthcare Industry At HIMSS

HIMSS 2003, SAN DIEGO, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Demonstrating its commitment to the healthcare industry, PKWARE, Inc., the pioneer and leading provider of Trusted ZIP Solutions(TM), today announced that it's extending its award-winning PKZIP(R) data compression and security solutions to healthcare organizations to help them achieve HIPAA compliance. PKWARE is showing the latest versions of its PKZIP security-enabled solutions at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2003 Annual Conference and Expo February 9-13, booth #1646, at the San Diego Convention Center.

The privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which take effect April 14, 2003, protect medical records and other personal health information created or maintained by health care providers, health insurers and others who engage in certain electronic transactions.

PKWARE's healthcare initiative is gaining momentum as new customers adopt its PKZIP security-enabled solutions to help them meet federal requirements for ensuring privacy of sensitive information transmission and storage. These companies include Gilsbar and Fiserv Health-Tennessee, who each process large numbers of insurance claims and transfer the information to their many clients on a daily basis. Both companies chose PKZIP because it enables them to transmit claims information quickly and efficiently, provides interoperability between disparate systems and allows them to archive files while minimizing storage requirements on their enterprise systems. Additionally, with PKZIP's new strong security features, Gilsbar and Fiserv Health-Tennessee, along with their clients, are able to satisfy the privacy requirements of HIPAA.

"With PKZIP, we've experienced tremendous benefits in terms of improved efficiencies and reduction in the time required for exchanging large documents within the company," said Steve McDonald, system analyst for Fiserv Health- Tennessee. "The software offers advantages through its interoperability with other enterprise platforms and is a great way for companies like ours to maximize capacity of their storage systems by compressing archived files. The new encryption features also make it easy to send confidential information in a secure manner -- without a high price tag -- and help us achieve HIPAA compliance."

"PKZIP is a powerful solution. At Gilsbar, we exchange large files with our insurance provider clients, and the software's interoperability between MVS, Windows and other computing platforms makes data transmission easy and practically instantaneous," said Gene Knobloch, IS development manager for Gilsbar, Inc. "Not only does PKZIP enable us and our partners to free up bandwidth as well as storage space on our enterprise systems, but the software's strong encryption capabilities help us to more easily achieve HIPAA compliance by ensuring that sensitive files we transmit and archive are secured."

PKWARE recently announced the availability of the newest versions of its industry-leading data compression solution for Windows, UNIX, OS/400 and MVS. PKZIP for Windows(R) 6.0 features integration with major email and collaboration software including IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft(R) Outlook, as well as a new Secure Desktop module with advanced cryptographic capabilities powered by industry-leading RSA BSAFE(R) software. PKZIP for UNIX 6.0 now supports virtually unlimited ZIP file size and files per archive, as well as integrating advanced security features powered by RSA BSAFE software. The new versions of PKZIP for OS/400 and MVS also combine leading data compression and strong encryption technologies to help enterprises and their partners simplify, speed and secure the exchange of health insurance claims and other types of confidential information.

"With the approaching deadlines for HIPAA compliance, healthcare related businesses and institutions are under increasing pressure to take the necessary steps to protect privacy as they make greater use of more efficient electronic information processing," said Steve Crawford, chief marketing officer of PKWARE. "Many of our healthcare customers are already benefiting from the addition of strong encryption to PKZIP, as well as its interoperability across multiple computing platforms, and are excited to have an easy-to-deploy method for securing data that also reduces bandwidth and storage needs."

All versions of the new PKZIP software integrate state-of-the-art data compression and encryption technologies, including 256-bit AES, making it easy for healthcare companies to efficiently and securely move more of their business communications online while both lowering costs and streamlining business processes. PKZIP-secured archives are completely interoperable across all major platforms including Windows, UNIX, MVS and OS/400. Additionally, recipients using other Microsoft Windows-based ZIP products that do not support strong security can also easily decrypt PKZIP-secured files by downloading the readily available free PKZIP Reader from PKWARE's web site.

Availability

PKZIP security-enabled solutions for Windows, UNIX, OS/400 and MVS are available now. For more information, please call 888-4-PKWARE or visit http://www.pkzip.com/.

About PKWARE, Inc.

PKWARE, Inc. is the inventor and continuing innovator of the ZIP standard, the most widely used method for data compression on Windows, UNIX, OS/400, MVS and other computing platforms. Since it was founded in 1986, the company has been dedicated to extending the ZIP standard and developing ZIP-based products that meet end-user and enterprise requirements for compressing files for efficient storage and transmission across all major computing platforms. In 2001, PKWARE extended the ZIP file format to include authentication and strong encryption to ZIP archives, making it possible not only to compress files, but also to prevent unauthorized access or modification. For additional information, please visit http://www.pkzip.com/.

RSA and BSAFE are registered trademarks or trademarks of RSA Security Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

PKWARE, the PKWARE logo, the "Zipper Design," PKZIP, PKUNZIP, PKSFX, PKLITE, PKLITE Professional and PKWARE Data Compression Library are registered trademarks of PKWARE, Inc. PKZIP Explorer, PKZIP Command Line, PKZIP Attachments, PKZFIND, PKZOOM, Deflate64, EasySFX, AutoSFX, RegularSFX and ZIP2EXE are trademarks of PKWARE, Inc. Trademarks of other companies mentioned in this documentation appear for identification purposes only and are property of their respective companies.

PKWARE, Inc.

CONTACT: Patrick Corman, +1-650-326-9648 or Patrick@cormancom.com, or
Nancy MacGregor, +1-415-309-5185 or nancy@cormancom.com, both of Corman
Communications, for PKWARE, Inc.

Web site: http://www.pkzip.com/