William, The problem is for most, that they haven't really done anything
other than the paper work and training to comply with the Privacy Rule.
I've visited several hundred CE's and it's a universal problem.  Especially
at risk are those that have relied on the HIPAA In A Box products - which
promote gross over confidence, and do no real security preparedness, much
less credible assessments.  But now that I have been looking at GLBA for a
while, I suspect large segments are in deep trouble.  The irony of this all
is that with HIPAA we have great support peer groups, but weak enforcement.
With GLBA, no peer support at all, and heavy enforcement!  Another thing
that come into play with GLBA, is that it isn't the individual that gets the
fine - it's the Senior Management/Board Members, and a violation of GLBA
also triggers the new Corporate Integrity statute.  These will be fun times
ahead.

Regards,

Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.

Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Alt Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Direct Phone: 1-727-787-9801

Certified Consulting Specialist and Forensic Regulatory Examiner in
Regulatory Privacy, Security, and Application Compliance
[HIPAA/FDA/GCP/21cfr11/CMS-HCFA/ICH/ADA & Section
508/DITSCAP/NIACAP/ISO17799/BS7799/NIST 800 C&A/COPPA/GLBA/Homeland
Security]
Founding Board Member & Executive Co-Chairman, HIPAA Conformance
Certification Organization

===========================================================================

IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE: This communication, including any attachment,
contains information that may be confidential or privileged, and is intended
solely for the entity or individual to whom it is addressed. If you are not
the intended recipient, please notify the sender at once, and you should
delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or
distribution of this message is strictly prohibited. Nothing in this email,
including any attachment, is intended to be a legally binding signature.

HIPAA NOTICE: It is acknowledged that HIPAA, ASCA, and other regulations and
statutes are law, and that all interpretation of law should involve licensed
attorneys in good standing with their local Bar Association. The forgoing is
provided for educational or discussion purposes only. The author accepts no
responsibility for its accuracy, review, distribution, or use in any way.
You assume responsibility for understanding this material and its
applicability and/or use. The above may need to be interpreted by your
attorney as needed to conform with federal or state law - you're use of this
information must always be reviewed and approved by your own attorney prior
to use, application, or implementation.



-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 8:12 AM
To: WEDI SNIP Security Workgroup List
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: FTC Security Rule


There are sufficient security requirements under the mini-security rule
for HIPAA which went into effect with the Privacy Rule last April that
should drive some action as well.  A minimum baseline position on
information security should already be in place for organizations that
believe that they are HIPAA Privacy Rule compliant, regardless of the
FDIC Guidelines impact.  I agree, the industry has a surprise in store
if anyone ever gets to the enforcement side of the equation well ahead
of April 2005.

William H. Dobson, CISSP, IAM
TrustWave Professional Services
201 Defense Highway, Ste 205
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Cell:   410-279-7921
Off:     410-573-6910 X 2622
Fax:  410-571-8493

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 4:34 AM
To: WEDI SNIP Security Workgroup List
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: FTC Security Rule

This is all well and good, but I think you all have a surprise in store.

Many (exact quality unknown) Healthcare providers and plans also fall
under
the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act.  Interestingly enough, the FTC's Safeguards
Rule
deadline was last May.  As such ALL HIPAA entities that also fall under
GLBA
must also comply with the FTC Safeguard Rule which is very similar,
though
has some interesting twists.  What is interesting about the FTC vision
of
security, is that no Risk is acceptable when a customer's data is
subject to
compromise.  Of course the practicality of such an approach is
problematic,
but it does speak to their approach on enforcement - serious and to the
point.

I would strongly suggest that ALL HIPAA CE's examine the FTC Safeguard
Rule
available from the FTC's website  www.ftc.gov (under Privacy
initiatives).

At least now you all have justification for your Security Budget!!

Regards,

Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.

Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Alt Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Direct Phone: 1-727-787-9801

Certified Consulting Specialist and Forensic Regulatory Examiner in
Regulatory Privacy, Security, and Application Compliance
[HIPAA/FDA/GCP/21cfr11/CMS-HCFA/ICH/ADA & Section
508/DITSCAP/NIACAP/ISO17799/BS7799/NIST 800 C&A/COPPA/GLBA/Homeland
Security]
Founding Board Member & Executive Co-Chairman, HIPAA Conformance
Certification Organization

========================================================================
===

IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE: This communication, including any attachment,
contains information that may be confidential or privileged, and is
intended
solely for the entity or individual to whom it is addressed. If you are
not
the intended recipient, please notify the sender at once, and you should
delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure,
copying, or
distribution of this message is strictly prohibited. Nothing in this
email,
including any attachment, is intended to be a legally binding signature.

HIPAA NOTICE: It is acknowledged that HIPAA, ASCA, and other regulations
and
statutes are law, and that all interpretation of law should involve
licensed
attorneys in good standing with their local Bar Association. The
forgoing is
provided for educational or discussion purposes only. The author accepts
no
responsibility for its accuracy, review, distribution, or use in any
way.
You assume responsibility for understanding this material and its
applicability and/or use. The above may need to be interpreted by your
attorney as needed to conform with federal or state law - you're use of
this
information must always be reviewed and approved by your own attorney
prior
to use, application, or implementation.



-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Pankey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 6:56 PM
To: WEDI SNIP Security Workgroup List
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Avoiding Risk was Re: PGP encryption


Chris, Doug

What is very interesting about the security rule is that it does not
seem to include *any* duty to 'avoid' a risk when the 'appropriate'
control cannot be 'reasonably' implemented.

Given that relatively few CE publish a (public) encryption key, it is
easy to argue that wholesale email encryption is 'not reasonable' ....
in that the cost of email encryption would then exceed its security
mitigation benefit. (the lack of marginal risk mitigation benefit
derives from the objectively low likelihood and potentially low impact
associated with the interception / redirection of any particular
message).

Clearly though email encryption is appropriate as there are few, if any,
alternate confidentiality controls.

On the other hand, there is nothing that obligates the CE to allow email
transmission of PHI, indeed many CE will claim to have had long-standing
policy precluding such use of email.  The fact that these polices were
often incompetent or not enforced is irrelevant; the HCO having such
policies, (necessarily) claim that such polices do / did not negatively
impact patient care or healthcare operations .... so the unmitigated
risk of email interception / redirection (apparently) can be avoided
with such polices.  Similarly, some marquee CE, motivated by a concern
over a lack of what they considered good security,  have similarly
adopted categorical 'no wireless' policies.

At some point (perhaps instigated by the plaintiff's bar) there simply
has to be consideration of the "avoid" risk option.  It does seem
incumbent on the CE who decides that 'appropriate' security is too
expensive (and thus unreasonable) to consider why it is that the CE is
not avoiding the risk entirely, by (perhaps) disallowing certain
practices, connections, technology, protocols, etc.  Although not
explicitly required by the Rule, where addressable features were not
implemented, it seems prudent to document why the risk that would have
been mitigated by those features could not somehow be avoided.

bill pankey










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of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post
your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at
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