Monitoring the data that is flowing out of networks can go a long way toward mitigating accidental as well as deliberate leaks, said Mark Moroses, senior director of technical services at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Maimonides is required to have controls for securing protected health information. The hospital is using Reconnex's appliance to detect if such data is leaving its networks in an unauthorized way.

"A patient is not going to come to our hospital if they think we are not doing everything to protect their information," Moroses said.