ehr onc final certification - Department of Health Care Services

interim final rule. We have revised the general encryption standard to read as follows:
“Any encryption algorithm identified by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) as an approved security function in Annex A of the Federal
Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-2.”
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published Federal
Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-2 to specify the security
requirements for cryptographic modules. As part of FIPS 140-X conformance, NIST
publishes “annexes” of different “approved” security protocols. For purposes of
encryption, NIST maintains “Annex A” which identifies “approved security functions.”
Annex A identifies both symmetric and asymmetric key encryption algorithms that NIST
has identified for use in accordance with FIPS 140-2. In response to commenters’
concerns, we believe that leveraging NIST’s work in this area provides for a clearer
requirement for compliance and provides Complete EHR and EHR Module developers
with the ability to use one or more secure encryption algorithms for the purposes of
demonstrating compliance with this certification criterion. We believe this flexibility will
benefit eligible professionals and eligible hospitals because they may be able to leverage
a broader suite of secure encryption algorithms. As noted in Special Publication 800-
111, which is specified in the guidance included in the breach notification interim final
rule for the encryption of data at rest, “[w]henever possible, AES should be used for the
encryption algorithm because of its strength and speed.”
We point out that the adopted certification criterion identifies certain discretionary
authority that the Secretary is retaining with respect to acceptable encryption algorithms.
We have adopted the list of approved encryption algorithms that NIST has identified and
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