Organizations with SOC 2 and HITRUST certification are able to demonstrate robust data security and compliance practices, gain a competitive edge in highly regulated industries, and build greater trust with clients and partners by showcasing their commitment to stringent data protection standards. While HITRUST certifications offer many advantages compared to SOC 2 attestations, we know that SOC 2 attainment is required by many customers. We recommend organizations maximize their effort and increase their strategic benefit by pursuing a HITRUST e1 certification concurrently when they are working on a SOC 2. Organizations that have already completed a SOC 2 can still use the work done to streamline their journey to a HITRUST e1 certification. Here are our top 5 reasons.

1. Maximize Resource Efficiency and Reduce Redundancy

• Leverage Existing Work: If your organization has already achieved SOC 2 certification, you can build on the existing framework to meet HITRUST e1 requirements. Approximately 90% of HITRUST e1 requirements overlap with SOC 2 controls, making the transition smoother and more efficient.
• Use Resources Efficiently: Pursuing both certifications concurrently or sequentially reduces redundancy, saving time and resources. The initial investment in SOC 2 can be maximized by applying much of the same work towards HITRUST e1 certification.

2. Comprehensive Compliance Coverage

• Map Requirements: HITRUST’s mapping workbook aligns SOC 2’s Trust Services Criteria (TSCs) with HITRUST e1 requirements, ensuring that your organization’s security measures are both broad and specific. This comprehensive mapping covers critical aspects of data protection.
• Address Specific Gaps: HITRUST e1 includes specific requirements that may not be fully addressed by SOC 2 alone, such as maintaining offline and immutable backups of data. By pursuing HITRUST e1, you ensure that these specific security measures are implemented, providing a more robust security posture.

3. Enhanced Security Assurance

• Improve Risk Management: HITRUST’s detailed control assessment and scoring methodology provide a clearer understanding of control maturity, helping to identify areas for improvement and manage risks more effectively.
• Provide Comprehensive Assurance: Achieving both certifications ensures that your organization has met the specific requirements of a HITRUST certification, in addition to the more general SOC2 expectations. This offers enhanced assurance to clients, partners, and regulators about your commitment to data security.

4. Strategic and Competitive Advantages

• Enhance Credibility: Dual certification enhances your organization’s credibility and trustworthiness, signaling a commitment to stringent data security and compliance standards.
• Differentiate in the Market: Especially in highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance, dual certification provides a competitive edge by showcasing your dedication to safeguarding sensitive information and meeting industry-specific regulatory requirements.

5. Cost-Effective Compliance Management

• Optimize Resources: By leveraging the work done for SOC 2, the additional effort needed for HITRUST e1 certification is minimized, making it a cost-effective strategy for achieving comprehensive compliance.
• Simplify Reporting: While HITRUST e1 and SOC 2 assessments result in separate reports, the concurrent or sequential approach streamlines compliance efforts, making it easier to manage and present comprehensive security assurance to stakeholders.

Pursuing HITRUST e1 certification alongside or after achieving SOC 2 not only maximizes the utility of your compliance efforts but also enhances your security posture, risk management capabilities, and competitive advantage. This strategic approach ensures comprehensive coverage, reduces redundancy, and demonstrates a robust commitment to the highest standards of data protection and regulatory compliance. Contact us to learn more or get started on your HITRUST certification.

Organizations live and operate in an interconnected business environment. The security of your organization is not solely dependent on your internal measures. Every vendor you engage with can either bolster your defenses or expose you to significant risks. The potential consequences of a vendor-related security breach can be devastating, impacting not only your organization but also your customers. This is why it is imperative to have an effective vendor risk assessment plan.

Act before it’s late

Vendor risk evaluation is a crucial aspect of a robust security strategy. When even one vendor is compromised, the ripple effects can lead to data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damages. The attack surface expands as businesses increasingly rely on third-party services, making it vital to understand and mitigate these risks early on before they become vulnerabilities.

Stay ahead of emerging threats

HITRUST offers robust solutions to identify and address security gaps for efficient vendor risk assessment. The HITRUST framework stands out due to its cyber threat-adaptive nature. It harmonizes best practices from more than 50 standards, frameworks, and regulations to address all 19 domains of security and risk management.

The HITRUST CSF is a universal, living framework, unlike most compliance frameworks that are updated every three to four years. It is continuously updated and published regularly for constant cyber threat management.

HITRUST uses threat intelligence data to identify new threats and mitigate them. HITRUST’s proactive approach ensures that your organization and its vendors are assessed against the latest cyber threats, offering optimal risk management. HITRUST enables businesses to be proactive rather than reactive, providing a significant advantage in the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Learn how HITRUST stays agile in cyber threat management with its cyber threat-adaptive framework.

Leverage HITRUST assessments for diverse needs

HITRUST understands that one size does not fit all. You may be working with a vendor that’s a newbie in the business and another one that’s a veteran. HITRUST offers three distinct assessment options — e1, i1, and r2 — catering to organizations of different sizes, needs, and risk profiles.

e1 is best suited for vendors that are new or small, possess limited risks, or are looking to achieve a milestone on their journey to a more robust certification. r2 is HITRUST’s most comprehensive security certification perfect for vendors that need to establish the highest level of trust. i1 serves as the ideal bridge between e1 and r2 for service providers with medium risk profiles. Vendors can also move from one assessment type to the other without losing previous work.  

These assessments provide the right type of security assurance, helping organizations to evaluate vendor risks meticulously. HITRUST assessments ensure that all vendors meet stringent security standards.

Build trust and foster strong business relationships

HITRUST helps you reduce the complexity and cost of vendor risk management by streamlining the assessment process and eliminating the need for multiple audits and questionnaires. It improves the transparency and accountability of your vendors. It boosts the confidence and satisfaction of your customers by demonstrating that you and your vendors are committed to protecting their data and privacy.

Beyond security assurance, HITRUST helps organizations and vendors to build trust and establish strong business relationships. It empowers you to foster a secure and trustworthy business environment by ensuring your vendors adhere to high security standards. This mutual trust is essential for long-term success and resilience against cyber threats.

Evaluating vendor risks is not just a best practice; it is a necessity in today’s digital age. HITRUST assessments provide a comprehensive, adaptive, and proactive approach to vendor risk management. Leverage HITRUST’s tailored assessment options to ensure robust security, build trust, and protect valuable data and reputation.

Don’t wait for a breach to occur — evaluate your vendor risks now and secure your organization’s future.

HITRUST has championed programs to help organizations across the globe protect sensitive information and manage risks since 2007. Organizations, small to large, depend on HITRUST to demonstrate trust and gain reliable assurances from third-party vendors.

But what is it that makes HITRUST unique?

HITRUST differentiators

The core foundation of HITRUST assessments and programs is its framework, the HITRUST CSF. The CSF harmonizes over 50 standards and frameworks, offering transparency and consistency. Eligible organizations can download the CSF for free from the HITRUST website.

HITRUST has innovated to enhance its offerings and keep up with the evolving landscape, over the years. It began with just one assessment type in the past but now offers three assessment options (e1, i1, and r2). These assessments have nested controls within the CSF that allow organizations to move from one assessment to the other without losing their previous work. It leads organizations on a path to achieve more comprehensive certifications.

There are many other innovative HITRUST offerings such as the HITRUST Shared Responsibility and Inheritance Program. Organizations can save time and effort by inheriting controls from their own past assessments or those of their vendors, such as cloud service providers.

But there’s more that makes the HITRUST CSF unique. The CSF is cyber threat adaptive, unlike other compliance frameworks. What does that mean and how does HITRUST achieve that?

Cyber threat-adaptive HITRUST framework

The threat landscape keeps evolving. The advent of new technologies introduces new threats. Organizations need to be on a constant lookout to identify and address emerging threats. It becomes challenging for them to deploy their resources to do this constantly due to competing priorities and business targets.

That’s why the HITRUST team uses real-time threat intelligence data to monitor threats and understand associated mitigations from the industry standard, MITRE ATT&CK Framework. The HITRUST team understands the severity of new, emerging threats and updates applicable controls accordingly. It immediately updates and releases a new version of the CSF when the threat is high risk. The next scheduled release of the CSF, which is usually less than a year, accommodates lower risks and informational techniques of note.

More comprehensive assessments like the i1 and r2 offer threat-adaptive coverages. The HITRUST team checks the controls for the i1 assessment. It ensures that the r2 assessment also offers coverage for new threats as it covers all 182 controls of the i1.

Leveraging MITRE ATT&CK

The MITRE ATT&CK Framework is a knowledge base used worldwide across multiple industries and disciplines as a standard way to categorize adversary and defense behavior. MITRE associates defense mitigations with identified attack techniques to protect against adversary activity. HITRUST maps these mitigations to the CSF control base and uses live adversarial data to stay on the cutting edge of protection.

HITRUST maps MITRE’s mitigations to the i1 assessment requirements to ensure appropriate coverage exists when implemented. There has never been a significant technique missed out from the HITRUST controls. The CSF versions 11.2 and 11.3 cover 100% of addressable Techniques, Tactics, and Procedures (TTPs) included in the MITRE ATT&CK Framework.

Collaboration with Microsoft

HITRUST uses Microsoft's threat intelligence data and generative AI technology to identify and analyze the latest threats instantly. Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence helps HITRUST expose and eliminate modern cyber threats. It tracks over 65 million signals every day, automates detections, and investigates emerging threats.

HITRUST also integrated the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service for advanced AI and accelerated analytical capabilities. This collaboration enables HITRUST to enhance the accuracy and timeliness of its framework updates while addressing upcoming cyber threats.

Constant updates to the HITRUST framework

The HITRUST CSF is a living framework. Most compliance frameworks are updated in three to four years as those organizations react after a threat becomes prominent. But HITRUST is agile and stays ahead of the game. It stays proactive by being cyber threat adaptive. The HITRUST framework is updated constantly and published regularly. HITRUST releases new versions of its framework around twice every year. It may release newer versions sooner if indicated by the threat data.

To stay ahead of emerging threats, download the latest version of the HITRUST framework.