In today’s digital age, where data breaches and cyber threats are everywhere, it’s more important than ever to have a reliable assurance that empowers organizations to earn the trust of their internal and external stakeholders.

HITRUST is committed to providing just that, with an assurance process grounded in six essential principles — transparency, scalability, consistency, accuracy, integrity, and efficiency. These principles ensure that every HITRUST certification awarded is both relevant to today’s risk landscape and reliable in its evaluation and reporting.

Let’s delve into each of these principles and understand why they are crucial for establishing trust.

Transparency

HITRUST believes in openness and clarity throughout its certification process. It fosters trust among organizations seeking certification as they can cross-reference any requirement with its corresponding authoritative source. Organizations are able to maintain visibility into requirement selection, evaluation, and scoring by reviewing the assessment process and scoring methodology in the publicly available HITRUST Assessment Handbook.

Scalability

In a rapidly evolving risk landscape, one-size-fits-all approaches to security simply don’t suffice. Recognizing this, HITRUST has developed a scalable cybersecurity assurance process to accommodate organizations of varying sizes, complexities, and risk profiles. HITRUST’s varying assessment options, which include the ability to seamlessly move from one assessment type to the other, cater to these needs. Moreover, HITRUST updates its framework regularly to keep up with emerging threats, ensuring the universal HITRUST CSF is relevant and cyber threat adaptive. According to the HITRUST 2024 Trust Report, 97% of all threat indicators in the MITRE ATT&CK are covered in HITRUST CSF version 11.2.

Consistency

Consistency is the hallmark of reliability. HITRUST maintains rigorous standards and procedures to ensure consistency in its certification process. All External Assessors authorized to perform HITRUST assessments must undergo a vetting and training process prior to becoming a part of HITRUST’s formal assessor program. HITRUST’s consistency not only enhances the credibility of its certifications but also facilitates benchmarking and comparison, enabling organizations to gauge their security posture relative to peers and industry standards.

Accuracy

In matters of security, accuracy is non-negotiable. HITRUST places a premium on accuracy throughout its certification process, employing validated assessment methodologies, robust controls, and stringent procedures to ensure the reliability and precision of its evaluations. It provides the only assessment report that clearly articulates control maturity using an innovative PRISMA-based scoring model. All HITRUST validated assessments must use the HITRUST scoring rubric to accurately reflect the organization’s control maturity. By upholding high standards of accuracy, HITRUST provides organizations with confidence that their certification demonstrates a true and comprehensive assessment of their security practices.

Integrity

Integrity forms the cornerstone of trust. HITRUST upholds the highest ethical standards and integrity in its certification process, ensuring impartiality, objectivity, and independence at every stage. HITRUST follows a centralized quality assurance process, including the use of the Assurance Intelligence Engine (AIE) to conduct over 150 automated quality checks. Each validated assessment submitted to HITRUST undergoes a detailed quality assurance review. Further, by involving third-party, independent assessors, HITRUST instills confidence in stakeholders that the certification process is free from bias, thereby enhancing the credibility of its certifications.

Efficiency

In today’s fast-paced business environment, efficiency is key. HITRUST recognizes the importance of efficiency and streamlines its certification process to minimize time, resources, and disruptions for organizations seeking certification. By adopting efficient workflows, providing automated tools, and harmonizing best practices, HITRUST enables organizations to achieve certification promptly and cost-effectively, without compromising the rigor or quality of the assessment. The HITRUST Shared Responsibility and Inheritance Program allows organizations to inherit controls from previous assessments and streamline their assessment process. Furthermore, organizations can meet and exceed multiple compliance requirements and stakeholder requests with a single HITRUST certification.

In conclusion, HITRUST’s commitment to these six essential principles sets it apart, providing a reliable assurance process. Organizations that seek HITRUST certification can rest assured that their commitment to security is backed by a rigorous and trustworthy cybersecurity assurance process that upholds the highest standards of excellence. Learn more about HITRUST’s proven methodology from its inaugural Trust Report.