Posts Tagged ‘breach law’

HIPAA Enforcement Will Improve With OCR Responsible for Both Privacy Rule & Security Rule

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Today the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the OCR will now be responsible for both the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Security Rule.
Perhaps this is an indicator of more enforcement to come. As a quick review…

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(Lack Of) Encryption Is A Basis For Notification Under The HITECH Act

Friday, July 31st, 2009

This week one of my tweeps asked me the following: “What’s your interpretation of encryption obligations for PHI data-at-rest under HITECH? Many parties are sweating this now.” Great question!

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Is This A Breach Under The HITECH Act Definition?

Monday, July 27th, 2009

This week I want to take a closer look at some of the issues and requirements within the HITECH Act, which dramatically expands the reach and requirements under the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)…

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New MO Breach Notice Law: Encryption Safe Harbor? Yes. Encryption Def Good? No!

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

On July 9, 2009 the Missouri governor signed House Bill No. 62 into law, and it included section 407.1500, which is the requirement for giving privacy breach notice.
Since I’m focusing this week on encryption laws, I want to take a moment and point out the horrible way in which encryption is defined within this new Missouri law..

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Has Massachusetts Encryption Law Stopped It’s Evolution?

Monday, July 20th, 2009

This week I want to take a look at encryption laws. Only a few short years ago no law or regulation really had explicit encryption requirements. HIPAA, passed in 1996 with effective compliance deadline requirements in 2003 (Privacy Rule) and 2005 (Security Rule) included withint the Security Rule that encryption was “addressable” based upon the results of risk assessment.
However, encryption became a more hotly debated topic with the more recent Massachusetts and Nevada laws that explicitly require organizations to encrypt personally identifiable information (PII). Now the question of whether or not the Massachusetts law will indeed be enforced upon the current compliance date of January 1, 2010 is once more in the news…

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