Safeguard your healthcare data with Synology ActiveProtect

According to statistics, more than 93 million healthcare records were exposed or stolen in 2023. This highlights the importance of improving healthcare cyber resilience to prevent the misuse and unauthorized sharing of patient data. This can be done by meeting healthcare regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).

HIPAA is a U.S. government mandated healthcare regulation that dictates why and how healthcare organizations need to meet patient privacy and data protection requirements in the U.S.

It applies to healthcare providers such as doctors, hospitals, clinics, and healthcare plan providers such as insurance companies, and even service providers or third-party vendors that handle electronic protected health information (ePHI) such as IT providers, data storage providers, billing companies, and overseas vendors that work with U.S. entities.

This act was designed to protect sensitive patient health information, give patients control over their health data, prevent misuse, and ensure privacy, security, and efficiency in the U.S. healthcare system. Read on to find out how HIPAA mandates the protection of ePHI.

The importance of HIPAA compliance

A patient’s medical records and data are confidential. If patient data and medical records are exposed during a cyberattack, patients may lose trust in the organization, which could damage its reputation and affect future business opportunities. Healthcare organizations could even face public scrutiny due to the data breach.

HIPAA mandates fines up to US$50,000 per violation. In severe cases, there may be jail time or other penalties if organizations are found to be intentionally misusing ePHI. Affected individuals need to be informed within 60 days. Depending on the size of the breach, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services may need to be notified.

In addition, the organization will need to plan for what to do if data protection fails and explain how they plan on taking corrective action going forward.

HIPAA also outlines retention requirements. HIPAA recommends storing HIPAA-related documents, including policies, procedures, compliance records, authorizations, notices, risk assessments, and more, for at least 6 years. When deciding how long to retain backups of medical records, HIPAA recommends consulting state or federal laws, such as those from the FDA or Medicare.

How to defend against healthcare-targeted threats

With complex healthcare requirements, companies need a reliable, one-stop data protection solution, such as Synology ActiveProtect, that comes with advanced backup, recovery, and security features. View the HIPAA checklist

HIPAA requirements	How to meet HIPAA requirements
§ 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(D): “Implement procedures to regularly review records of information system activity, such as audit logs, access reports, and security incident tracking reports.”	Comprehensive audit logs Data protection summary
§ 164.312(a)(1): “Implement technical policies and procedures for electronic information systems that maintain electronic protected health information to allow access only to those persons or software programs that have been granted access rights as specified in § 164.308(a)(4).”	Restrict permissions via role-based access controls (RBAC)
§ 164.312(c)(1): “Implement policies and procedures to protect electronic protected health information from improper alteration or destruction.”	Built-in immutability to prevent data tampering Built-in air-gapping for data isolation
§ 164.312(c)(2): “Implement electronic mechanisms to corroborate that electronic protected health information has not been altered or destroyed in an unauthorized manner.”	Self-healing capabilities Automatic backup verification Disaster recovery testing
§ 164.312(d): “Implement procedures to verify that a person or entity seeking access to electronic protected health information is the one claimed.”	SSO which can be integrated with existing MFA methods
§ 164.312(e)(2)(ii): “Implement a mechanism to encrypt electronic protected health information whenever deemed appropriate.”	End to end data transmission security
§ 164.530(j)(2): “A covered entity must retain the policies and procedures implemented to comply with this subpart in written or electronic form for six years from the date of their creation or the date when they last were in effect, whichever is later.”	Data retention policies Remote storage options to store backup copies or tiered data

Audit logs and reports: As HIPAA requires healthcare institutions to implement procedures such as audit logs and audit reports to review activity, ActiveProtect allows users to conduct regular audits by viewing and exporting logs. They can also receive a summary of their activities, such as activity logs, advanced system logs, and more.

Users can also use ActiveProtect’s log forwarding capabilities to centralize logs, keep organizations informed, uncover hidden risks, and ensure the safety of their data.

Access controls: As HIPAA requires medical institutions to implement technical procedures and policies to allow access to authorized users only, ActiveProtect allows IT to delegate user permissions based on the principle of least privilege. Users can be assigned permissions to access servers, manage backups or restores, or have view-only permissions.

Data resiliency: As HIPAA requires procedures in place to protect ePHI from alteration or destruction, ActiveProtect comes with built-in immutability to ensure that data cannot be changed or deleted as well as air-gapping capabilities so that users can store copies of their data in a secure, isolated location.

Data integrity safeguards: As HIPAA states that electronic mechanisms capable of verifying that ePHI data hasn’t been altered or destroyed is mandatory, ActiveProtect includes features such as self-healing capabilities, automatic backup verification, and a built-in hypervisor for DR testing.

Self-healing capabilities ensure that any errors or corrupt data are proactively detected and repaired. ActiveProtect automatically verifies backups by capturing a video, ensuring an accurate copy is preserved.

In addition, ActiveProtect’s built-in hypervisor allows users to create a sandbox environment to test disaster recovery strategies without any impact to the production site. Learn more

User authentication: As HIPAA requires user authentication to verify user identity, ActiveProtect also includes features to set up user authentication. Users can integrate Windows AD and LDAP to centralize user management. ActiveProtect comes with SSO capabilities. If SSO is enabled, you can use existing MFA methods configured on your SSO/MFA server. Learn more

Secure data at transit and at rest: HIPAA recommends that ePHI data be encrypted. Various methods are used when backing up your data with ActiveProtect. ActiveProtect uses end to end secure data transmission to store data. When data is transferred to a remote storage site, AES-256 is used.

Data retention requirements: As HIPAA states that data has to be retained for at least 6 years, ActiveProtect allows users to set data retention policies and leverage cloud or on-prem remote storage options to safeguard backup copies or store tiered data.

Click here to see how you can protect your healthcare data with Synology ActiveProtect today.