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The Role of HITRUST CSF in Achieving Cyber Resilience
Healthcare organizations depend heavily on connected systems to provide essential services in today’s digital world. But there’s a growing concern behind all this technological progress – their vulnerability to cyber threats. Imagine that regular hospital operations are disrupted not by a medical emergency but by a cyber-attack compromising vital patient data. This emphasizes the urgent need for solid strategies to ensure cyber resilience in the healthcare industry. This article based on HITRUST’s “TRUST REPORT: Navigating the Landscape of Trust in Information Assurance,” delves into how the HITRUST framework helps organizations increase their defenses against security attacks. HITRUST recognizes the necessity of being prepared in today’s digital landscape. Their report offers valuable insights on how organizations can improve cyber resilience and protect themselves from potential security attacks. How Does HITRUST CSF Strengthen Cyber Resilience? To decipher this, first grasp the concept of cyber resilience. Cyber resilience means keeping your business running smoothly by protecting and avoiding and avoiding cyber-attacks. The HITRUST framework is a critical tool that helps organizations achieve and demonstrate their ability to handle these challenges effectively. The HITRUST framework promotes cyber resilience, enabling organizations to detect, protect, respond, and recover from cyber incidents. A HITRUST certification indicates that the organization has a stronger capability to mitigate cybersecurity issues. HITRUST certification confirms that a company has satisfied strict cybersecurity standards, demonstrating its capacity to continue operations amid cyber threats. HITRUST Certification and Continuity Once certified, HITRUST certification remains valid for a specified duration, contingent upon meeting specific conditions: two years for r2 certification and one year for i1 or e1 certification, provided the organizations meet certain conditions, which include: 1. No data security breaches are reported to federal or state agencies within or affecting the assessed environment. 2. Annual progress on areas identified in the Corrective Action Plan(s) (CAPs) 3. There should be no significant changes in business or security policies, practices, controls, and processes that could affect its ability to meet certification criteria. HITRUST CSF Responding to Security Breaches While no organization is immune to cyber threats, HITRUST-certified entities are better prepared to manage incidents. As per the TRUST Report (2024), In 2022 and 2023, only 0.64% of organizations that received HITRUST certifications reported a security breach to HITRUST in their certified environment over that same period. HITRUST requires enterprises to make annual progress on CAPs so that they not only meet the evaluated level of cyber resilience but also continue to strengthen their cyber resilience capabilities. In the event of a security breach, HITRUST collaborates with the organization to assess the impact and enhance the HITRUST framework based on incident insights. This continuous improvement cycle strengthens overall resilience against evolving cyber threats. Annual Progress and Control Maturity Annual progress on Corrective Action Plans is integral to maintaining and enhancing cyber resilience capabilities. HITRUST requires organizations to show progress on Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) annually. In 2023, HITRUST found that 28% of assessments did not need a CAP. For assessments requiring CAPs (r2 assessments), 92% of these CAPs were resolved by the interim evaluation, typically held one year after certification. This ensures they maintain their cyber resilience and strengthen their security posture. If an organization’s HITRUST scores fall below a certain threshold during assessments, they must create a CAP to improve security. This requirement means that organizations with HITRUST certification consistently improve their security more than those without it. HITRUST Proactive Approach Recognizing the dynamic nature of organizational settings, HITRUST supports certified entities through periods of significant change. This proactive approach enables organizations to adapt while maintaining compliance with HITRUST standards, ensuring continuous certification validity. Recent data…
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