Communicare Security

Communicare's security scheme is designed to be easy to maintain yet effective. It works on 3 layers: SYSDBA, ADMINISTRATOR, MEDISYS.

Only members of the System Administrators group can grant or maintain user rights and privileges.

Firebird Authentication

  • All Communicare data are held in a Firebird database. Access is denied without a valid Firebird username and password. The username and password supplied when Communicare is started is passed to the Firebird server for authentication. If authentication fails, Communicare prompts you to try again a limited number times.
  • This security layer applies regardless of the data enquiry tool used. That is, the same username and password is applicable to Communicare, Windows Interactive SQL or any other third party data analysis tools used to access Communicare data.

System Passwords

In order to maintain your Communicare database there are several usernames and passwords that we maintain.

See System Passwords for more information.

Application Level Security

  • Users are organised by group. Access rights are given to groups only.
  • Access to Communicare Modules (for example, Management Reports, Clinical Record) is controlled by the Communicare application and the USER_GROUP_SYSTEM_RIGHTS and SYSTEM_ACCESS_RIGHTS tables.
  • This security layer applies only to Communicare.

Database Enforced Security

  • Users are organised by group. Access rights are given to groups only.
  • Access to Patient Clinical records and Clinical Item Type data is controlled according to user group membership.
  • This security layer applies regardless of the data enquiry tool being used. That is, the same username and password is applicable to Communicare, 'Windows Interactive SQL' or any other third party data analysis tools used to access Communicare data.
  • This scheme allows specific users to view sensitive data whilst hiding the same data from other users. For exampl, STD results, such as HIV+.

Avoiding the Login Prompt

The display of the Login prompt can be suppressed by either of the following methods:
  • Runtime parameters - for example, username=yyy password=xxx.
  • Registry entries - create string variables in HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMedisysSecurity. AutoLogin = 1, password = xxx, username = yyy.

Other Security Considerations

Refer to the HQBird and Firebird documentation for further information about securing Firebird. Particular attention should be paid to restricting access to:
  • Firebird backup and backup media, so that unauthorised users cannot restore their own copies of Communicare data
  • The folder where the Communicare database resides
  • Firebird folders, usually C:\\HQbird
  • The server temporary file folder, usually the TMP environment variable defines where Firebird stores temporary files

See Also User Groups.