Recently, we've got an inquiry about how S/Notify Email Encryption for Jira and Confluence could help with HIPAA compliance. This was an interesting question, and I'd like to share our findings with you.
tl;dr – S/Notify Email Encryption for HIPAA compliance
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For those who want the long answer, let's first clarify a few things about HIPAA.
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA stand for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It was enacted in 1996 to set the standard for sensitive patient data protection in the USA. Companies that deal with protected health information (PHI) must have physical, network, and process security measures in place and follow them to ensure HIPAA Compliance. Covered entities (anyone providing treatment, payment, and operations in healthcare) and business associates (anyone who has access to patient information and provides support in treatment, payment, or operations) must meet HIPAA Compliance. Other entities, such as subcontractors and any other related business associates must also be in compliance.
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The HIPAA required the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop regulations protecting the privacy and security of certain health information. To fulfill this requirement, HHS published what are commonly known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the HIPAA Security Rule. The Privacy Rule, or Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information, establishes national standards for the protection of certain health information. The Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information (the Security Rule) establish a national set of security standards for protecting certain health information that is held or transferred in electronic form. The Security Rule operationalizes the protections contained in the Privacy Rule by addressing the technical and non-technical safeguards that organizations called “covered entities” must put in place to secure individuals’ “electronic protected health information” (e-PHI). Within HHS, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has responsibility for enforcing the Privacy and Security Rules with voluntary compliance activities and civil money penalties.
Use of Email Encryption
How Now, how can Email Encryption help to become HIPAA compliant?
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Encryption is an important element of HIPAA compliance for email. The method of encryption is not specified in HIPAA, but HIPAA-covered entities can obtain up to date guidance on encryption from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which currently recommends the use of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128, 192 or 256-bit encryption in its latest publication SP 800-45 Version 2 (see References). The following is quoted from this publication:
S/MIME
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The most significant feature of S/MIME is its built-in and nearly “automatic” nature. Because of heavy industry involvement from manufacturers, S/MIME functionality exists with default installations of common mail clients such as Mozilla and Outlook Express.
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S/Notify for HIPAA Compliance with Jira and Confluence
Email encryption is considered an appropriate solution to to cover Transmission Security, and, within this area, is able to cover both, Integrity Controls and Encryption. As a consequence, if you use Jira (including Jira Service Desk) and Confluence to manage any protected health information (PHI), S/Notify is perfect to get you covered with regard to the transmission security of email notifications. S/Notify currently supports S/MIME encryption with AES-256, as recommended by NIST for highest security.
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- Digital Guardian: What is HIPAA compliance?
- US Department of Health and Human Services: Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule
- HIPAA Journal: HIPAA Compliance for Email
- US Department of Health and Human Services: HIPAA - Technical Safeguards - PDF
- National Institute of Standards and Technology: Guidelines on Electronic Mail Security
- IOSR Journal of Engineering: Comparative Study Of AES, Blowfish, CAST-128 And DES Encryption Algorithm
Images from Wikimedia Commons (except S/Notify)