The US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP) announced the release of version 3.5 of the Security Risk Assessment (SRA) Tool. The SRA Tool is designed to aid small and medium-sized healthcare organizations in their efforts to identify and assess potential risks and vulnerabilities to electronic protected health information (ePHI) when conducting a risk analysis as required by the HIPAA Security Rule. Conducting an accurate and thorough risk analysis is a foundational activity to protect ePHI and comply with the HIPAA Security Rule. The downloadable SRA Tool is a desktop application that walks users through multiple choice questions to help identify and assess potential risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI. References and best practices to strengthen an organization’s cybersecurity posture are provided while using the tool.
