Do understand what HIPAA does, we have to first look at what form security is. Form security or secure web forms are forms that are used on websites to securely collect data from users. They are designed to use data encryption, authentication, and secure communication protocols like SSL/TLS to protect the information that is collected. This helps security such as PII, (any recognition of an individual’s identity) HIPAA, (to protect a patients sensitive health information from being disclosed) FERPA, (the parent’s right to have access to their child’s education records) PCI (the protection businesses must provide and secure to for credit card data. So, let’s take a look at each of the different types of form security.
The First type of form security is PII, which stands for Personal Identification Information. It is defines information that directly identifies an individual address, social security number or other identifying number or code, telephone number, email address, etc. or by which any agency intends to identify specific individuals in conjunction with other data elements, indirect identification. Additionally, information permitting the physical or online contacting of a specific individual is the same as personally identifiable information, the information can be maintained in either paper, electronic or other media. The Second type of form security is HIPAA, which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountable Act. It requires federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. This subset is all individually identifiable health information a covered entity creates, receives, maintains, or transmits in electronic form, which is called electronic protected health information(or e-PHI). To comply with the HIPAA Security Rule, all covered entities must:
- Ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all e-PHI
- Detect and safeguard against anticipated threats to the security of the infomation
- Protect against anticipated impermissible uses or disclosures that are not allowed by the rule
- Certify compliance by their workforce
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Covered entities should rely on professional ethics and best judgement when considering requests for these permissive uses and disclosures. The Third type of form security is FERPA, which stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. It is known as a federal law that affords parents the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. When a student turns 18 years old, or enters a postsecondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the parents to the student (“eligible student”).The Fourth and final type of form security is PCI, which stand Payment Card Industry. It compliance is mandated by credit card companies to help ensure the security of credit card transactions in the payments industry. Payment card industry compliance refers to the technical and operational standards that businesses follow to secure and protect credit card data provided by cardholders and transmitted through card processing transactions. These are some key takeaways and standard to PCI:
- Companies that follow and achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security (PCI DSS) are considered to be PCI compliant.
- The PCI Security Standards Council is responsible for developing the PCI DSS.
- PCI DSS has 12 key requirements, 78 base requirements, and 400 test procedures to ensure that organizations are PCI compliant.
- Being PCI compliant reduces data breaches, protects the data of cardholders, avoid fines, and improves brand reputation.
- PCI compliance is not required by law but is considered mandatory through court precedent.
In conclusion, the different types of form security can help sustain a user’s information throughout different websites. PII can help identify any user’s identity like their phone number, email address, name, any of the person belonging. HIPAA can help process a patient health information provided for the website and protect from the information from being disclosed without the user’s consent or knowledge. FERPA talks about how parents can obtain the information across their child’s education records and see how they’re doing in school. PCI deals with how help ensure the safety and secureness of a user’s credit card to make sure nobody is using it. Using form security in any type of web development job can help gain the trust of a user and help navigate them to different businesses/companies to inform this kind of information on their websites. To make sure legal compliance is met by maintaining the information of the user and not letting it get pass on to any other source/website that might manipulate the information.
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