4 ms·

I don't know HIPAA specifics off-hand, but I would not be the least bit surprised if ephemeral pre-signed urls get generated for sharing HIPAA protected assets

by bilalq 3y ago

I don't know HIPAA specifics off-hand, but I would not be the least bit surprised if ephemeral pre-signed urls get generated for sharing HIPAA protected assets based on cookies/auth. If the URL is live for a time window and doesn't insta-expire on refresh, then it's conceivable that data gets leaked here.

KennyBlanken 3y ago
HIPAA requires "reasonable" measures. Hilariously, you can't chuck a drive full of plain text PII into a dumpster in the back of your building... ...unless there's a fence around it. A lot of the nonsense around shredding hard drives is just the drive industry convincing people that they need to destroy perfectly good devices. Unless you're facing state-level actors a simple zero-out or pipe from /dev/random will suffice. Or with a lot of modern drives where the data on the platter is encrypted by default, just send the "secure erase" command, causing the drive to roll over the controller's private key.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  >A lot of the nonsense around shredding hard drives is just the drive industry convincing people that they need to destroy perfectly good devices. Unless you're willing to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that each and every such hard drive does not in any shape or form contain sensitive information and pay hefty fines and jail time when you inevitably fail, the only nonsense here is you. It has been proven time and time again that data once written can be and will be recovered. Any storage media that contains or contained sensitive information must be physically destroyed. That is the only surefire, foolproof way that we currently know of to securely and permanently delete sensitive information.
  - KennyBlanken 3y ago
    > Unless you're willing to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that each and every such hard drive does not in any shape or form contain sensitive information I'm not sure which part of "HIPAA says you can take an UNENCRYPTED hard drive and toss it in a dumpster provided it has a fence around it" you didn't understand. > Any storage media that contains or contained sensitive information must be physically destroyed. Not for federal data: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/nist.sp.800-88r1.pdf https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/nist.s... Not for classified defense department data: https://www.dami.army.pentagon.mil/site/IndustSec/docs/DoD%20522022-m.pdf https://www.dami.army.pentagon.mil/site/IndustSec/docs/DoD%2... ...and as previously mentioned: not for PII healthcare data. The bit about "you can only be SURE if you destroy it" is pure hard drive manufacturer nonsense. Find me a single case where someone has recovered data from a non-solid state (hybrid or otherwise) drive or tape that has undergone a SMART secure erase or NIST / DoD compliant wipe. In decades, I have never heard of such an incident.
    - what-the-grump 3y ago
      Simple, I read a paper that vaccines cause autism... Now prove to me that you are not an elephant. Now lets get purely logical. There is a non-zero chance of risk, and the best risk avoidance strategy is to not take the risk in the first place, so shred the drive. So lets make a software, that would secure erase the drive and try to recover the data, and prove that you are not actually an elephant. But why? Make a lot of money instead? Make a hard drive with a secure erase feature, and yes I know, but like put a spin on it, maybe a button, or better yet, you secure erase the drive backed by an industry grade non-recoverability warranty for a cheap $10/yr./drive subscription access to our secure erase service. We come to you next day, give a certificate and everything, you can put it in your HIPAA folder and show it to your risk committee. Your market? Health care, gov, and problems that solely exist in between the keyboard and the screen.
  - Rediscover 3y ago
    Trivia: At the old AT&T (not at&t, the (mostly) mobile/cell company), it was standard to degausse the drive then drill through the middle of the radius and park a bolt there. Bonus points if You had a spot welder to secure a nut to the bolt. Fun times.
- abeyer 3y ago
  But given that our hardware is largely cheap and disposable, it's almost always cheaper to throw another device or 1000 on top of the shredder pile than it is to pay a tech to make sure every one of them has been zeroed.

by bilalq 3y ago

KennyBlanken 3y ago

HIPAA requires "reasonable" measures. Hilariously, you can't chuck a drive full of plain text PII into a dumpster in the back of your building... ...unless there's a fence around it. A lot of the nonsense around shredding hard drives is just the drive industry convincing people that they need to destroy perfectly good devices. Unless you're facing state-level actors a simple zero-out or pipe from /dev/random will suffice. Or with a lot of modern drives where the data on the platter is encrypted by default, just send the "secure erase" command, causing the drive to roll over the controller's private key.

Dalewyn 3y ago
>A lot of the nonsense around shredding hard drives is just the drive industry convincing people that they need to destroy perfectly good devices. Unless you're willing to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that each and every such hard drive does not in any shape or form contain sensitive information and pay hefty fines and jail time when you inevitably fail, the only nonsense here is you. It has been proven time and time again that data once written can be and will be recovered. Any storage media that contains or contained sensitive information must be physically destroyed. That is the only surefire, foolproof way that we currently know of to securely and permanently delete sensitive information.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  > Unless you're willing to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that each and every such hard drive does not in any shape or form contain sensitive information I'm not sure which part of "HIPAA says you can take an UNENCRYPTED hard drive and toss it in a dumpster provided it has a fence around it" you didn't understand. > Any storage media that contains or contained sensitive information must be physically destroyed. Not for federal data: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/nist.sp.800-88r1.pdf https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/nist.s... Not for classified defense department data: https://www.dami.army.pentagon.mil/site/IndustSec/docs/DoD%20522022-m.pdf https://www.dami.army.pentagon.mil/site/IndustSec/docs/DoD%2... ...and as previously mentioned: not for PII healthcare data. The bit about "you can only be SURE if you destroy it" is pure hard drive manufacturer nonsense. Find me a single case where someone has recovered data from a non-solid state (hybrid or otherwise) drive or tape that has undergone a SMART secure erase or NIST / DoD compliant wipe. In decades, I have never heard of such an incident.
  - what-the-grump 3y ago
    Simple, I read a paper that vaccines cause autism... Now prove to me that you are not an elephant. Now lets get purely logical. There is a non-zero chance of risk, and the best risk avoidance strategy is to not take the risk in the first place, so shred the drive. So lets make a software, that would secure erase the drive and try to recover the data, and prove that you are not actually an elephant. But why? Make a lot of money instead? Make a hard drive with a secure erase feature, and yes I know, but like put a spin on it, maybe a button, or better yet, you secure erase the drive backed by an industry grade non-recoverability warranty for a cheap $10/yr./drive subscription access to our secure erase service. We come to you next day, give a certificate and everything, you can put it in your HIPAA folder and show it to your risk committee. Your market? Health care, gov, and problems that solely exist in between the keyboard and the screen.
- Rediscover 3y ago
  Trivia: At the old AT&T (not at&t, the (mostly) mobile/cell company), it was standard to degausse the drive then drill through the middle of the radius and park a bolt there. Bonus points if You had a spot welder to secure a nut to the bolt. Fun times.
abeyer 3y ago
But given that our hardware is largely cheap and disposable, it's almost always cheaper to throw another device or 1000 on top of the shredder pile than it is to pay a tech to make sure every one of them has been zeroed.