PT0-001 · Question #24
A healthcare organization must abide by local regulations to protect and attest to the protection of personal health information of covered individuals. Which of the following conditions should a…
The correct answer is D. Health information communicated over HTTP E. DAR encryption on records servers. HIPAA requires that personal health information be protected both in transit and at rest; testers must verify that PHI is not sent over unencrypted channels and that storage-level encryption is enforced on records servers.
Question
A healthcare organization must abide by local regulations to protect and attest to the protection of personal health information of covered individuals. Which of the following conditions should a penetration tester specifically test for when performing an assessment? (Select TWO).
Options
- ACleartext exposure of SNMP trap data
- BSoftware bugs resident in the IT ticketing system
- CS/MIME certificate templates defined by the CA
- DHealth information communicated over HTTP
- EDAR encryption on records servers
How the community answered
(16 responses)- A6% (1)
- B13% (2)
- D81% (13)
Why each option
HIPAA requires that personal health information be protected both in transit and at rest; testers must verify that PHI is not sent over unencrypted channels and that storage-level encryption is enforced on records servers.
SNMP trap data carries network management information such as interface statistics and device alerts - not personal health information - so its cleartext exposure does not constitute a HIPAA PHI violation.
Bugs in an IT ticketing system are general software quality issues unrelated to HIPAA's specific PHI protection mandates unless the system itself stores or processes covered health information.
S/MIME certificate templates define how email signing and encryption certificates are issued, which is a PKI administration concern and not a specific HIPAA PHI protection test target in this context.
HTTP transmits data in cleartext with no encryption, so any PHI exchanged over HTTP is exposed to interception, directly violating HIPAA's requirement to protect the confidentiality and integrity of electronic PHI in transit.
Data-at-rest (DAR) encryption on records servers is required by the HIPAA Security Rule to safeguard stored electronic PHI; unencrypted records servers expose patient data to anyone with physical or logical access to the storage media.
Concept tested: HIPAA PHI protection - in-transit and at-rest encryption testing
Source: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/index.html
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