HIPAA-Oriented Encrypted Forms
Cyphorm is designed to support HIPAA compliance requirements in the sense that we architecturally cannot access submission contents—only ciphertext.
What we mean by "HIPAA-oriented"
HIPAA compliance for your organization is never a single checkbox. It depends on business associate agreements, workforce training, retention, breach procedures, and how you configure access. What we offer is a sharp reduction in vendor read access compared to typical hosted form products.
Many form vendors claim "HIPAA compliance" while still operating infrastructure that can access PHI. They encrypt data at rest on their servers, but their application decrypts it for dashboards, notifications, and exports. With Cyphorm, the vendor's application never has access to plaintext—the decryption happens in your browser.
How zero-knowledge supports HIPAA
HIPAA's Security Rule requires covered entities to implement safeguards that protect PHI. One of the most effective safeguards is minimizing who can access PHI in the first place. Cyphorm's architecture does this by design:
- No plaintext on vendor servers — PHI is encrypted in the respondent's browser before transmission
- No vendor-held decryption keys — the private key lives only in your browser's local storage
- No plaintext in vendor backups — database backups contain only ciphertext
- Reduced breach impact — if our infrastructure were compromised, attackers would obtain only encrypted blobs
Your responsibilities
Cyphorm reduces the vendor attack surface, but HIPAA compliance remains your organization's responsibility:
- Business Associate Agreement (BAA) — contact us to discuss BAA terms
- Workforce training — ensure staff understand key management and backup procedures
- Risk analysis — document how Cyphorm fits into your broader security program
- Retention policies — configure data retention to align with your compliance requirements
- Breach procedures — maintain incident response plans even though our zero-knowledge design reduces breach risk