HIPAA Vulnerability Scan: Necessity, Requirements, And Steps

HIPAA compliance is vital for data safety and security in the healthcare industry. Continued compliance helps avoid drastic, damaging, and expensive scenarios that affect the organization and hundreds and thousands of individual patients. 

This is why HIPAA vulnerability scans are vital in today’s efforts to keep healthcare data, such as PHI, medical records, and patient personal information, confidential and protected at all times. 

HIPAA Vulnerability Scan: Is It Necessary?

One mandate of HIPAA requires a regular risk analysis or assessment of the security features deployed to protect confidential healthcare information. However, HIPAA does not specify what kind of risk assessment is to be performed, and this decision is left to each organization. 

Organizations like hospitals, healthcare centers, medical institutions, and others can choose between two significant types of risk assessment: HIPAA vulnerability scans and penetration tests. 

A HIPAA vulnerability scan can help organizations identify weaknesses in their cyber security system before malicious entities exploit them, whereas penetration tests are comparatively more in-depth and time-consuming.

HIPAA Compliance Requirements

1. Risk Analysis

Risk analysis is the process of scanning and or analyzing an organization’s security system to identify vulnerabilities that could cause potential damage to the sensitive data stored by that organization. This can range from confidential patient health information to various results from tests. 

HIPAA compliance involves analyzing risk to protect the target from threats to the safety and confidentiality of private healthcare data. However, it does not mention a specific type of risk analysis, which leaves the decision of choosing between penetration tests and vulnerability assessments to the organization itself. 

2. Vulnerability Fixing

Once the risk assessment is completed, fixing the discovered vulnerabilities is crucial for achieving HIPAA compliance and mitigating the risk of data breach, modification, or theft. 

A detailed report is provided after the pentesting is complete, which explains the scope, vulnerabilities discovered, and mitigation strategies.

3. Employee Training

All healthcare sector employees must be required to attend HIPAA security compliance training, which will help them better understand how to handle PHI securely.

It will also clarify the dos and don’ts and compliant and non-compliant postures regarding PHI. Such training should be offered periodically to ensure all employees are updated on the relevant information. This also gives employees a better understanding of the seriousness of mishandling PHI and violating HIPAA security compliance. 

4. HIPAA Email Compliance

HIPAA-compliant emails ensure that the contents, such as patient health information, are safely and securely delivered to the receiver. They must also be encrypted to protect the data or information sent. 

Risk analysis is another way to ensure that an email is HIPAA compliant. Email disclaimers, confidentiality notices, strong passwords, and multifactor authentication ensure that sensitive data is handled carefully. 

5. Monitoring Compliance

Continuous monitoring with HIPAA vulnerability scans is necessary to identify new vulnerabilities that threaten an organization’s online security to maintain and achieve HIPAA security compliance.

The tools for HIPAA risk assessments should be integrated into the security system to provide automated continuous monitoring. This helps prevent false positives, which can waste resources and manpower.

Steps In A HIPAA Vulnerability Scan

The steps in a HIPAA vulnerability scan are as follows:

1. Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance refers to the research phase of the pentest, where the pentesting teams aim to find all the information they can about the publicly available target. This is done after scoping, where all the assets are to be tested, and the reasons and the limits are discussed to avoid legal troubles and scope creep.

There are two types of reconnaissance, active and passive reconnaissance: 

Active reconnaissance refers to finding information about the target through thorough interaction. This type of surveillance requires prior permission from the target. 

Passive reconnaissance refers to finding information without interacting with the target through publicly available online resources, such as websites. 

2. Scanning

This is where the information gathered in the reconnaissance phase is scanned to identify different vulnerabilities based on a vulnerability database of known CVEs and from OWASP Top 10 and SANs 25. 

In this stage, vulnerabilities can also be found using an automated, comprehensive vulnerability scanner, which can be vetted with a manual pentest to avoid false positives.  

3. Reporting

Once the vulnerability scanning is complete, a detailed report with an executive summary is generated. It includes information on the scope of the scan, the rules of engagement, methods employed, and a list of the vulnerabilities found. 

Each vulnerability is explained in detail, along with its CVSS scores, impact on the security system, and risk scores, to enable easier prioritization and implementation of remediation measures. 

4. Resolution

The target organization then analyzes the report and works on the remediation part of vulnerability scanning. They prioritize the vulnerabilities based on risk and tackle the crucial ones first.

Some VAPT companies also provide detailed steps to recreate and resolve vulnerabilities. This assistance is helpful to internal security teams.

5. Rescanning

This is the last step in the vulnerability assessment procedure to safeguard the fixes made to an organization’s assets’ security. Once the fixes are made, the security system is rescanned to find any vulnerabilities that could have newly emerged. 

Once this step is complete and zero vulnerabilities have been detected, the organization’s online security can be said to be completely safe.        

Pros Of HIPAA Vulnerability Scans Over HIPAA Pentests

Regular HIPAA vulnerability scans or pentests form the backbone of maintaining HIPAA compliance and keeping confidential healthcare information safe and secure. 

However, when opting between the two, HIPAA vulnerability scans have a few pros over HIPAA pentests, as listed below. 

• HIPAA vulnerability scans are a quick and easy solution to maintaining continuous compliance. 
• It is also far more affordable than traditional penetration testing, which can take weeks, depending on the scope size and manpower. 
• Vulnerability scans can be automated, which saves copious periods and energy. 
• Automated HIPAA vulnerability scans can also be conducted continuously, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly, unlike pentests, which are conducted far more sporadically. 
• Vulnerability scan results can be vetted by pentesting professionals to weed out false positives, thus saving considerable time. 

Here are some of the cons of vulnerability scanning over pentests: 

• It might not be as comprehensive as a pentest. 
• Doesn’t confirm the exploitability of a vulnerability. 
• False positives are a possibility that needs to be vetted. 

HIPAA Rules

1. Security Rules

HIPAA’s security rule outlines various safeguards for the optimal protection of PHI (Patient Health Information). These safeguards include administrative, physical, and technical strategies. 

• Administrative

Administrative safeguards are essentially a guide for employees on handling PHI safely. They are implemented to train employees through thorough staff training on the safe handling of patient information, to establish emergency protection plans for PHI by assigning a privacy official, and to monitor and test the security that is placed to protect the PHI through risk assessments. 

• Physical

This refers to protecting the physical access points to PHI. It also includes setting guidelines for best practices that employees should follow to prevent the unwanted dissemination or leak of information from their workstations and other portable devices. 

This includes installing alarm systems, ID badge access entry, surveillance cameras, and more. 

• Technical

This refers to adding anti-virus, anti-malware, or data encryption to stored data to ensure that it is not accessed without proper authorization or altered, deleted, or stolen.  

2. Privacy Rules

The privacy rule is instigated to protect people’s personal health information. Privacy rules put forth by HIPAA allow organizations and healthcare providers to follow best practices, rules, conditions, and limitations per patients’ authorization. 

HIPAA’s privacy rule gives individuals rights over their protected health information, such as the right to examine or obtain a copy, transfer such records electronically, and request corrections. 

Records with HIPAA identifiers can only be used or released with due authorization and patient waivers. 

The privacy rule permits the disclosure of patient PHI without authorization but with detailed conditions in the following cases: 

• To business associates.
• Public health purposes as and when required by state and federal law. 
• Public agencies oversee activities like audits, inspections, and legal proceedings.
• To law enforcement officials.
• For legal proceedings when demanded through a court order. 
• For research purposes.  

What Are HIPAA Identifiers? 

HIPAA identifiers are information elements within a patient’s private medical record that can be used to identify, contact, or locate an individual. Documents with such identifiers can only be released or used with the patient’s written consent or waiver. 

The following are the various elements that are categorized as identifiers by HIPAA:

1. Names
2. Addresses, including street names and zip codes. 
3. All dates from birth dates to death of death, date of admission, and discharge. 
4. Telephone and fax numbers
5. Email address
6. Social security number
7. Email addresses
8. Medical record and health plan beneficiary numbers
9. Account and license number
10. Vehicle identifiers like license and serial numbers.
11. Device identification numbers
12. Web URLs and IP addresses
13. Biometric identifiers like fingerprints. 
14. Full-face photographs.
15. Any other characteristic that is unique to the individual.

According to HIPAA’s security and privacy rules, any document containing such information must be tightly protected in healthcare organizations. Thus, HIPAA vulnerability scans are the best way to preserve such pivotal private information. 

Is All Health Information Considered PHI in HIPAA?

There is a relatively common misconception that all health information is considered PHI according to HIPAA. However, this is not the case. According to HIPAA, health care information or patient data is only identifiable or acts as an identifier for health progress and bill payments, among other things. 

PHI ceases to be PHI if all the identifiers in the data are removed. Such data is said to be de-identified. 

According to HIPAA, health information is considered PHI if it involves information a healthcare entity records regarding your mental and physical health and prognosis. 

Final Thoughts

HIPAA compliance is a critical norm in the healthcare industry. One of the best ways to achieve this is by regularly conducting automated HIPAA vulnerability scans, a risk analysis method mandated by HIPAA.  

Ensure the health of your organization today by teaming up with Astra to achieve and maintain your HIPAA compliance!

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