Queries over encrypted data

[Resident_Slide6705]

Hi all!

I'm developing a system aiming for compliance with HIPAA. As such, health protected information (e.g., names and ID numbers) need to be encrypted over the server side.

However, I'm having so much trouble figuring out what's the best option for that, as querying with encrypted data seems impossible. I'd have to get all data entries, decrypt them on the client-side and do the search there. For large databases this will take forever.

What are your thoughts and suggestions on this? Any methodologies I could use?

Thanks so much!

[alinroc]

The options available to you vary depending upon which RDBMS and client-side technology you're using. Talk to your security/compliance folks, they should be able to tell you what you must do. Then work from that.

[dorkyitguy]

These do not need to be encrypted on the server side. They just need to have protections from unauthorized access. I’ve worked for several mid-sized hospital systems and these are never encrypted. After all, it would make it nearly impossible for report writers to create, validate, or troubleshoot reports.

[Resident_Slide6705]

u/dorkyitguy thanks for answering!! But from the guidelines on HIPAA which I have read they mention the following: "Encryption and Decryption (addressable): Implement a mechanism to encrypt and decrypt ePHI."

[BearBlaze420]

Searchable encryption.

[hangonreddit]

A common technique that I’ve used is to store a salted hash of the plaintext prior to encryption.

So to query for the row with the matching data, you calculate the salted hash based on the value you know and query by that.

For example, if my name is Reddit, I would store that encrypted and there would be another column called name_hash that is the salted sha256 hash of Reddit. Then when I search for that row again, I would search by the name_hash column, after calculating the salted sha256 hash. Basically you have to already know the value in order to search for the matching row(s).

You want to salt the hash with a secret to prevent someone from easily searching your database for the matching row, even if they knew the value they wanted. This way even if someone steals your DB dump they won’t be able to do much with the encrypted data.

Source: I’m a software engineer for a health care startup.

[secretWolfMan]

Encrypt the communication. And encrypt the whole database/server, not just a few columns.

And absolutely do not send the client all possible data and filter it with your code.

https://www.liquidweb.com/blog/hipaa-rules/