An Empirical Investigation: Health Care Employee Passwords and Their Crack Times in Relationship to HIPAA Security Standards

The purpose of this article is to examine the passwords selected by health care professionals and the security and privacy standards in relationship to those passwords as addressed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Examinations of these passwords have illustrated the connectivity between password length and strength and the need to educate employees as to the importance of their password choices. Through an empirical analysis, this article examines whether the passwords created by employees of a health care agency followed “strong” or “weak” password practices. The results should indicate to health care agencies the importance of comprehensive password policies and employee training.