HITRUST

Learning about the 19 HITRUST domains is essential to mastering data protection. It may sound technical and complex, but we will walk you through the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF).

What with the constant and evolving threat of cybercrime, it’s become more crucial than ever for organizations to protect their proprietary and customer data. Over the past year, the average cost of cybercrime for an organization has increased from $1.4 million to $13.0 million, and the average number of security breaches rose by 11 percent, from 130 to 145. Knowing this threat, HITRUST self-assessments are one of the most important ways you can prevent security breaches and maintain HIPAA compliance.

Businesses in the healthcare sector are attractive targets for cybercrime. Storing millions of clients’ sensitive medical and financial records makes an accidental or targeted data breach extremely harmful for consumers. Plus, attackers can also target companies’ own abundant assets via direct theft, fraud, and ransom scams, causing short- and long-term damage. Given all this risk, the benefits of HITRUST certification are undeniable for all healthcare and adjacent businesses.

Are you looking for a way to ensure that your organization is maintaining HIPAA compliance? If so, NIST and HITRUST are security frameworks that can help you uphold compliance, prevent breaches, and avoid non compliance penalties. But many companies get caught up in the debate of HITRUST vs NIST.

Do you have to stick to one or the other? Are they compatible together?

The HITRUST Act (Health Information Trust Alliance) establishes the framework for online healthcare information security, while also encouraging healthcare organizations to adopt digital patient files. Digitizing healthcare information makes it easier to share between approved organizations or personnel. Patients can also access their records online, eliminating the need for them to request paper copies.

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) first introduced the Common Security Framework (CSF) in 2007. CSF protects sensitive data, while also managing the security risks global organizations often face, along with their third-party suppliers. CSF documents and compares HIPAA and HITECH requirements to the security and privacy regulations. When patients know that their information is secure, it can help build trust between them and their healthcare organization. 

Roughly 38,000 Common Security Framework (CSF) assessments have been performed in the last three years. The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) is expecting a continuous demand for CSF certification thanks to the third-party assurance requirements from major health organizations. 

Companies that broadly occupy the security space might consider a new service they could offer at the intersection of healthcare and cybersecurity: becoming a HITRUST assessor.

All kinds of personal data already lives online, but now we’re faced with medical categories of data being usefully stored there as well. And the cynics and realists alike know that anything stored online is fundamentally vulnerable to cyber attacks

Healthcare organizations pursue HITRUST certification because they want to demonstrate productive forward motion on cybersecurity mindfulness. A mark of HITRUST compliance means that a business has taken steps to interrogate its technological infrastructure for flaws and potential improvements. 

Good results don’t necessarily come cheap.

When it comes to the technical infrastructure that manages data within the healthcare industry, it not only needs to be highly useful for approved personnel like doctors and pharmacists, but it also needs to be kept very safe at the same time. In other words, data on these systems need to be both highly secure and highly accessible. It’s a little easier said than done.

The ten biggest healthcare data breaches in 2018 ended up costing major sums of money and compromising millions of patient data records. Breaches in the healthcare space are rising because cybercriminals are gluttons for other people’s data, and hospitals retain loads of it.