While the latest version of any product is often seen as the greatest, there is more nuance involved when trying to determine which version of the HITRUST CSF® framework to utilize for certification. Currently, users can choose from versions 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4. With the impending release of HITRUST CSF v10p (preview) in mid-May 2021, and a full release of v10 scheduled for later in the year, it adds more questions about whether to make the jump to 10 right away, if you have to make the jump to 10, and when will you be required to make the jump to version 10; all of which we’ll tackle.

“Do I really need to retain all my HIPAA audit logs for 6 years?”

The short answer is...yes. Now for the long answer - a SOC 2 report requires that a service organization has sufficient control activities in place to address the Trust Services Principles and Criteria (TSPC) developed by the AICPA. However, there are no stipulations by the AICPA as to what those control activities have to be. As long as the criteria are satisfactorily addressed to align with the risks that a service organization has identified, a service organization has some flexibility with the controls they implement.

Determining the scope of an assessment against the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) is one of the first and most important tasks of the entire HITRUST assessment process. The assessment scope is a major factor in the level of effort required to complete an assessment, and is important to relying entities in determining if the services they use are assessed against the HITRUST CSF. However, for organizations with large or complex IT environments, the task of determining the scope of their HITRUST assessment(s) may seem daunting.

What is the SOC 2? At a high level a SOC 2 examination is a report on internal controls of a service organization related to the Trust Service Principles and Criteria (TSPs), which include: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and/or privacy. Reporting on these TSPs can provide assurance around the adequacy of your services’ security control environment.

HITRUST Basics The HITRUST set of security controls and safeguards (referred to as the ‘CSF’ or ‘Common Security Framework’) was developed using a risk-based approach to address the multitude of security, privacy, and regulatory challenges facing healthcare organizations. It includes control points derived from the HIPAA, HITECH, NIST, ISO, PCI, FTC, COBIT frameworks, as well as federal and state privacy laws.