Never share PHI unless you have authorization

 Important tips to protect data in emails

Stealing patients’ medical information is big business. Learn how to keep email data safe and secure.

Help us protect our members’ and patients’ sensitive information.

Today, we handle so much of our business by phone, text, and instant messaging. But email is still the way many people share files.

When you share files as email attachments, they can pose a security risk. If an attachment is not correctly secured, it could be intercepted by unauthorized parties and used to steal sensitive information.

Kaiser Permanente examines all emails sent outside of the organization for sensitive information. If you send unencrypted messages containing protected health information (known as PHI), personally identifiable information, or credit card information, the email will be flagged for investigation.

There are things you can do to protect data in email attachments.

Never share PHI unless you have authorization. If you’re authorized, make sure you encrypt the message as explained below and verify that you’re sending to the correct email address.

Never share credit card information via email.

If you need to send a large amount of data, use the KP Secure File Transfer program. If you send emails regularly to business partners, email the Transport Layer Security team to request that their email domain be added to the security list, which automatically adds encryption to emails.

If you accidentally send an email with sensitive information to an unintended external addressee, ask them to delete it. Notify your local compliance officer of the error. And send an email to Data Loss Prevention requesting that they recall the email.

How to encrypt an email in Outlook

To encrypt an email, include one of the following tags at the end of your subject line:

(phi), (PHI), [phi], or [PHI]

(encrypt), (ENCRYPT), [encrypt], or [ENCRYPT]

Include a space between the subject text and encryption tag:

Subject text (encrypt)

Do not use the Encrypt function in Outlook.

By following these tips, you can help protect the data you send in email attachments from theft.

Need more information? Learn the do’s and don’ts of protecting email data and take the Data Loss Prevention training on KP Learn.