The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule establishes a national set of minimum security standards for protecting all electronic private health information (ePHI) that a Covered Entity (CE) and Business Associate (BA) create, receive, maintain, or transmit. The Security Rule contains the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards that CEs and BAs must put in place to secure ePHI. With that in mind, what types of information system components need to be heavily scrutinized to help protect the confidentiality and integrity of ePHI? What types of controls would you recommend implementing to safeguard ePHI? Cite resources and references that back up your assertions.
I believe the most critical information system components of HIPAA’s Security Rule that need to be criticized are workforce security, workstation and device security, and encryption. Suppose there are no restrictions on employee accessibility or little training in cybersecurity policy. In that case, that leaves electronic Private Health Information (ePHI) susceptible to being changed or leaked, which compromises both confidentiality and integrity. Ensuring a proper foundational understanding of cybersecurity for staff, as well as higher awareness of the value of ePHI to cybercriminals will improve the ability to maintain the information’s security. Next, devices with poor security or access protocols allow for little protection and unauthorized access to ePHI, which is why secure protocols and role-based access control can limit how many people can access information, improving security. Furthermore, effective encryption techniques are also beneficial in protecting devices that store ePHI by scrambling information to unauthorized users, but without it, information is left in understandable text to anyone who can get to it.
https://fortifiedhealthsecurity.com/blog/do-you-meet-hipaas-3-areas-of-security/
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/laws-regulations/index.html