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HIPAA | HITECH Data Security Compliance

Thales’ CipherTrust Data Security Platform provides data access control and encryption solutions that help organisations comply with the HIPAA and HITECH requirements.

HIPAA

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The HIPAA Security Rule requires healthcare organisations to use appropriate safeguards to ensure that electronic protected health information (ePHI) remains secure, and the HITECH Act, which expands the HIPAA encryption compliance requirement set, requires the timely disclosure of data breaches.

For many healthcare organisations, one of the most daunting provisions of complying with HIPAA and HITECH has been adhering to The Privacy Rule. Applying encryption solutions that protect patient data from all but a defined set of uses – and within the proscribed EDI sets – has proven to be a significant IT challenge. An effective implementation must not only be secure and adhere to these transaction standards but must also be manageable within the company’s IT framework.

Thales solutions help organisations meet these compliance challenges by implementing technical safeguards for ePHI through:

  • Data discovery and classification
  • Data access control
  • Encryption and tokenisation (pseudonymisation) of data at rest
  • Encryption of data in motion
  • Encryption key management
  • Keeping and monitoring user access logs
  • The use of hardware security modules for executing encryption processes and protecting encryption keys
  • Regulation
  • Compliance

The US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

The HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities to implement technical safeguards to protect all electronic protected healthcare information (ePHI), making specific reference to encryption, access controls, encryption key management, risk management, auditing and monitoring of ePHI information. The HIPAA Security Rule enumerates examples of encryption methods that covered entities can employ, along with the factors to consider when implementing a HIPAA encryption strategy.

Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act

Enacted as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the HITECH Act expands the HIPAA encryption compliance requirement set, requiring the disclosure of data breaches of “unprotected” (unencrypted) personal health records, including those by business associates, vendors and related entities.

HIPAA Omnibus Rule of 2013

The “HIPAA Omnibus Rule” of 2013 formally holds business associates liable for compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule.

Data Discovery and Classification

The first step in protecting sensitive data is finding the data wherever it is in the organisation, classifying it as sensitive, and typing it (e.g. PII, financial, IP, HHI, customer-confidential, etc.) so you can apply the most appropriate data protection techniques. It is also important to monitor and assess data regularly to ensure new data isn’t overlooked and your organisation does not fall out of compliance.

Thales’ CipherTrust Data Discovery and Classification efficiently identifies structured as well as unstructured sensitive data on-premises and in the cloud. Supporting both agentless and agent-based deployment models, the solution provides built-in templates that enable rapid identification of regulated data, highlight security risks, and help you uncover compliance gaps. A streamlined workflow exposes security blind spots and reduces remediation time. Detailed reporting supports compliance programs and facilitates executive communication.

Strong access management and authentication

Thales Access Management and Authentication solutions provide both the security mechanisms and reporting capabilities organisations need to comply with data security regulations. Our solutions protect sensitive data by enforcing the appropriate access controls when users log into applications that store sensitive data. By supporting a broad range of authentication methods and policy driven role-based access, our solutions help enterprises mitigate the risk of data breach due to compromised or stolen credentials or through insider credential abuse.

Support for smart single sign on and step-up authentication allows organisations to optimise convenience for end users, ensuring they only need to authenticate when needed. Extensive reporting allows businesses to produce a detailed audit trail of all access and authentication events, ensuring they can prove compliance with a broad range of regulations.

Protection of sensitive data at rest

The CipherTrust Data Security Platform is an integrated suite of data-centric security products and solutions that unify data discovery, protection, and control in one platform.

  • Discover: An organisation must be able to discover data wherever it resides and classify it. This data can be in many forms: files, databases, and big data, and it can rest across storage on premises, in clouds, and across back-ups. Data security and compliance starts with finding exposed sensitive data before hackers and auditors. The CipherTrust Data Security Platform enables organisations to get complete visibility into sensitive data on-premises and in the cloud with efficient data discovery, classification, and risk analysis.
  • Protect: Once an organisation knows where its sensitive data is, protective measures such as encryption or tokenisation can be applied. For encryption and tokenisation to successfully secure sensitive data, the cryptographic keys themselves must be secured, managed and controlled by the organisation. The CipherTrust Data Security Platform provides comprehensive data security capabilities, including file-level encryption with access controls, application-layer encryption, database encryption, static data masking, vaultless tokenisation with policy-based dynamic data masking, and vaulted tokenisation to support a wide range of data protection use cases.
  • Control: The organisation needs to control access to its data and centralise key management. Every data security regulation and mandate requires organisations to be able to monitor, detect, control, and report on authorised and unauthorised access to data and encryption keys. The CipherTrust Data Security Platform delivers robust enterprise key management across multiple cloud service providers (CSP) and hybrid cloud environments to centrally manage encryption keys and configure security policies so organisations can control and protect sensitive data in the cloud, on-premise and across hybrid environments.
  • Monitor: Finally, the enterprise needs to monitor access to sensitive data to identify ongoing or recent attacks from malicious insiders, privileged users, APTs, and other cyberthreats. CipherTrust Security Intelligence logs and reports streamline compliance reporting and speedup threat detection using leading Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems. The solution allows immediate automated escalation and response to unauthorised access attempts and provides all the data needed to build behavioral patterns required to identify suspicious usage by authorised users.

Protection of sensitive data in motion

Thales High Speed Encryptors (HSEs) provide network independent data-in-motion encryption (Layers 2,3 and 4) ensuring data is secure as it moves from site-to-site, or from on-premises to the cloud and back. Our HSE solutions allow customers to better protect data, video, voice, and metadata from eavesdropping, surveillance, and overt and covert interception—all at an affordable cost and without performance compromise.

Protection of cryptographic keys

Luna HSMs from Thales provide a hardened, tamper-resistant environment for secure cryptographic processing, key generation and protection, encryption, and more. Available in three FIPS 140-2 certified form factors, Luna HSMs support a variety of deployment scenarios.

In addition, Luna HSMs:

  • Generate and protect root and certificate authority (CA) keys, providing support for PKIs across a variety of use cases
  • Sign your application code so you can ensure that your software remains secure, unaltered, and authentic
  • Create digital certificates for credentialing and authenticating proprietary electronic devices for IoT applications and other network deployments

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Other key data protection and security regulations

GDPR

Regulation
Active Now

Perhaps the most comprehensive data privacy standard to date, GDPR affects any organisation that processes the personal data of EU citizens - regardless of where the organisation is headquartered.

PCI DSS

Mandate
Active Now

Any organisation that plays a role in processing credit and debit card payments must comply with the strict PCI DSS compliance requirements for the processing, storage and transmission of account data.

Data Breach Notification Laws

Regulation
Active Now

Data breach notification requirements following loss of personal information have been enacted by nations around the globe. They vary by jurisdiction but almost universally include a “safe harbour” clause.