A Digital Health Security Exercise to Test Your Breach Response
If you're a digital health company I've took the guess work out and developed a security exercise that you can use to test your responses in the event of a security incident.
Security exercises are important because:
it's an excellent way to meet HIPAA compliance requirements
it's an excellent way to not look like Change Healthcare
it's an excellent way to assess your defenses
it's an excellent way to improve
Use this for your next table top exercise to measure how efficiently and quickly you can respond to a breach.
Background
You're a health tech company utilizing cloud-based databases to store and process electronic protected health information (ePHI) you receive. This offers the advantage of remote accessibility and integration capabilities with various healthcare applications. However, it also serves as a goldmine! Cloud data can be lucrative for hackers.
Scenario Overview
Hackers have targeted your cloud storage in a sophisticated operation. Leveraging a combination of social engineering attacks and exploiting vulnerabilities in the cloud infrastructure, they’ve gained unauthorized access to the databases, exfiltrating ePHI. The attackers threaten to release the information publicly unless a ransom is paid.
Your Objectives
Immediate Response: Quickly activate your incident response team to assess and limit the damage, ensuring that the breach is contained.
Communication: Formulate a communication plan for internal teams, affected individuals, and regulatory bodies, ensuring compliance with HIPAA’s Breach Notification Rule.
Data Analysis: Identify the scope of the breach, including the specific data accessed or stolen, to understand the impact on patient privacy and company liability.
Regulatory Compliance: Address all legal and compliance requirements, including reporting the breach to appropriate authorities and affected individuals in a timely manner.
Security Enhancements: Develop a plan to strengthen your cloud security posture, focusing on areas like access controls, encryption, and monitoring to prevent future incidents.
Questions to consider:
How fast can we respond?
Do we have the expertise to go through these steps?
Do we understand our Breach Notification requirements?
Simulation Steps
Detection and Analysis: Recognize signs of unauthorized access in cloud-based systems through alerts from security tools or irregular access patterns.
Incident Response Activation: Gather your IR team to begin an immediate investigation, including the extent of data compromise and the method of access.
Containment and Mitigation: Isolate affected databases to prevent further unauthorized access and implement additional security measures as needed.
Communication and Notification: Follow a well-prepared plan to notify all stakeholders, maintaining transparency while managing the potential impact on your company's reputation.
Recovery: Restore any affected services from backups if necessary, ensuring that restored data is not compromised.
Post-Incident Review: Conduct a thorough review of the incident to identify vulnerabilities exploited by the attackers, the effectiveness of your response, and areas for improvement in security practices.
Questions to consider:
What tools do you have to detect the breach (e.g., SIEM or other security tools?)
How quickly can you reach your IR Team?
Do you have a plan to notify stakeholders?
Are your back-ups in another geo-location so they can't be compromised?
Debrief
After completing the simulation, hold a debrief session to discuss the actions taken, the decisions made, and areas for improvement. This session should involve all stakeholders. The goal is to learn from the exercise and enhance your resilience against future threats.
Questions about HIPAA?
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