Cybersecurity Health – What it is and how to adapt to HIPAA

Looking at the vulnerability scenario in hospital-data systems, in 1996, the American government created a set of mandatory rules called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). 

HIPAA applies to all hospital institutes in the United States, and its goal is quite simple: to protect patient data against data leaks, cyberattacks, improper information inquiries, and fraud.

The main points of HIPAA

HIPAA has 3 main points in its rules:

1) Privacy: the act requires that the patient’s personal data be confidential.

2) Security: in addition to keeping it private, an institute must ensure that the information is physically and digitally secure, so that there is no leak or fraud related to the information.

3) Identifiers: these are information that cannot be disclosed if collected for research purposes.

The most commonly violated points are:

• Unacceptable disclosures of protected health information (PHI).
• Unauthorized access to data.
• Improper disposal of personal information.
• Failure to conduct a risk analysis.
• Failure to manage PHI confidentiality, integrity, and availability risks.
• Failure to maintain and monitor PHI access records.
• Failure to enter into a HIPAA-compliant business partnership agreement with suppliers before granting access to PHI.
• Failure to provide patients with copies of their PHI upon request.
• Failure to implement access controls to limit who can see PHI.
• Failure to terminate PHI access rights when it is no longer needed.
• The disclosure of more PHI than is necessary for a given task to be performed.
• Failure to provide HIPAA training and security awareness training.
• Theft of patient records.
• Unauthorized disclosure of PHI to individuals not authorized to receive the information.
• Sharing PHI online or via social media without permission.
• Incorrect handling and sending of PHI.
• Text messages with PHI.
• Failure to encrypt PHI or use an equivalent alternative measure to prevent unauthorized access/disclosure.
• Failure to document compliance efforts.

Failure to comply with the rules can lead to fines of up to US $ 50,000 per violation, in addition to having a great loss of reputation.

How to adapt to HIPAA

It is essential to implement a technology that guarantees information security in any institution.

A way widely used by institutions is through PAM (Privileged Access Management) solutions, in which environments can be created and can only be accessed by authorized people, having security locks and recording of any type of action within the environment through session recording, detailed logs, and reports of complete accesses. These procedures guarantee the security and transparency of the actions performed in the environments.

How to choose the best solution for your business

senhasegura is one of the main PAM solutions in the world. Our solution, in addition to ensuring management during the privileged session, also guarantees the before and after the consultation in the system, which is essential for compliance with HIPAA.

Also, our solution is recognized as a Challenger by the Magic Quadrant; and was recognized as one of the top PAM solutions on the market in the Critical Capabilities report by Gartner, a leading technology research institution.

Schedule a demo with our experts and learn why senhasegura can meet your needs easily.