The Benefits of Tokenization with HIPAA Security

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Using Tokenization to Assist HIPAA Compliance for WooCommerce eCommerce

Creating a HIPAA Compliant WooCommerce Integration

Healthcare-related businesses, especially those operating through eCommerce platforms, need to comply with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), ensuring the protection and securing of ePHI, against bad actors. ePHI refers to all the protected health information submitted electronically by a customer, related to healthcare-related services, treatments, or payments, and it can contain any personal information that can lead to identification of this individual.

HIPAA includes several guidelines with regards to the security and the privacy of ePHI, and it is each individual business’s duty to ensure a HIPAA compliant website. Among the long list of rules and guidelines included in HIPAA, HIPAA technical safeguards are an important part, with a few options that should be explored by eCommerce platform owners who are pursuing HIPAA compliance. One of them is substituting ePHI data with tokens, and this article will focus on how ePHI tokenization can assist with HIPAA compliance.

Using Tokenization to Assist HIPAA Compliance for WooCommerce eCommerce
ePHI Security and Privacy: Why are They So Important?

Ensuring HIPAA Compliance

When someone is subscribing to a healthcare service, asking for medical advice, receiving treatment, admitted to a hospital, or anything relevant, they have to share some private information with the service provider. This information (ePHI) can be related to demographics, medical history, social security number, payment details, or any other personal circumstance that can potentially be used to identify this individual. Knowledge of some sort of ePHI is necessary for the provision of the correct service, and customers are submitting their ePHI in full confidence that it will not be mistreated, or used for purposes other than their health betterment.

However, if ePHI is not handled with care, it can be easily accessed by hackers or people with malevolent motivation, leading to exposure of the identity and medical history of people without their consent. Such actions are penalized by law, and it is in the best interest of a healthcare provider to make sure ePHI is protected. Not only because of the hefty penalties imposed when HIPAA compliance is breached, but also because the good name of a business will be on the line if existing or potential customers find out that ePHI has been leaked.

HIPAA Compliance Issues in WooCommerce ePlatforms

HIPAA Compliance in WooCommerce

Living in an online era makes hacking and information acquisition that much easier, so eCommerce platform owners should be that much more meticulous with the protection of their business from intruders and hackers. Some website hosts are better than others in terms of overall protection or ePHI security, and nowadays there are several added layers of protection one can use to ensure they run a HIPAA compliant website with robust HIPAA-compliant web hosting.

Unfortunately, WordPress and WooCommerce are not considered hosts offering HIPAA compliant website and eCommerce platforms, and so businesses trusting those platforms for their eCommerce should implement extra measures towards satisfaction of the HIPAA compliance requirements (mainly ePHI privacy and security). Such measures usually include using security plugins, making sure that all software used is regularly updated, using strong passwords and authentication systems (there are HIPPAA password requirements available for implementation), engaging with integration of HIPAA compliant APIs for ePHI storing and handling outside the WooCommerce environment, and using several of the suggested HIPAA technical safeguards, such as encryption or tokenization.

Tokenization: What you need to know about it

The Need for Tokenization

Tokenization: What you need to know about it

Encryption and tokenization are related to how ePHI is immediately available, both protecting the actual information by presenting “something else” in lieu of it. The difference between the two is that encryption is a reversible process using a decryption key (basically translating a code), whereas tokenization refers to the creation of a random, useless set of digits, with the correspondence to the actual ePHI being securely hidden in a vault. In both cases, if someone gets access to the encrypted information or tokens, they will not be able to understand and use them, unless they also get access to the decryption key, or the token vault.

That being said, ePHI tokenization might be a better option to ensure security of such information, as each token is randomly created, having no connection to other existing information, whereas all encrypted information can be revealed using the decryption key. However, scaling up token creation can be challenging, compared to encryption, which works on any volume of data, and also it is mainly used for structured data, such as social security number, account numbers, email or contact information, rather than any sort of file as encryption does. One of the main benefits of ePHI tokenization, is that actual ePHI is always stored in the token vault, within the organization, which satisfies some HIPAA compliance requirements, compared to encryption, in which encrypted data can be transmitted and handled from external parties.

Using ePHI Tokenization

Given the low security of WooCommerce, use of tokens is considered a great way to implement an extra layer of security and lower the risk of data breaches, past the assumingly existing physical, administrative, and other technical HIPAA safeguards. Tokenization takes place as soon as ePHI is submitted from the end-user, and past this point, wherever ePHI is required, the corresponding token is used instead. Despite them being “not real” values, tokens do not pose any issues with end-user interface, as they are not seen by them, or at least they are not seen in their full strength. An example of tokenization partially shown in public is showing the number of a card used to make a payment in the format of asterisks leading to the last four digits of the number, which are the only ones shown and corresponding to the actual information. No one will be immediately able to extract the information contained in this token, but simultaneously, showing some part of the information submitted by the end-used builds trust and strengthens the business-client relationship.

In a nutshell, ePHI tokenization can really make a difference in the level of security and ability to satisfy HIPAA compliance requirements. Tokenized data can be used in lieu of the real ones, preserving the functionality of operations, more easily and with less concern, while access to the real data is protected under several layers of protection, requiring extensive authentication, or multiple layers of intrusion and HIPAA password requirements overruling until the token vault is reached.

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