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.
The integrity and confidentiality of ePHI can be protected by heavily focusing on protecting information systems, databases where the info is stored, and strengthening the access points to them, both on-site, and mobile. One of the common ways a hacker can gain access to a private health information system is by stealing the credentials of either a customer, or an employee with higher access to the database (HIPAA Electronic Protected Health Information (ephi) 2022). By implementing more verification methods, or limiting their access without additional verification, this can limit the damage that a hacker can potentially do, and the information they can gain access to. They can also attempt to limit the access a user, or employee has from a mobile device, or when using public wi-fi, due to the increased risk associated with using it.
Not only online, but physically, steps need to be taken as well. Locking databases or computers in secure areas on-site can prevent breaches, while extra security on mobile devices, or in mobile applications related to ePHI can help to reduce the risk posed to the information. For company laptops, or mobile devices, installing software to delete data in the event of equipment theft, or malicious tampering would also be a good idea.
HIPAA Electronic Protected Health Information (ephi). Compliancy Group. (2022, November 9). Retrieved November 23, 2022, from https://compliancy-group.com/hipaa-ephi-electronic-protected-health-information/