E

Electronic Personal Health Information (EPHI):

Personal health information in electronic form (such as on a computer or saved to tape, disk, cdrom or other media.) See personal health information.

Emergency Mode Operation Plan:

A part of the required contingency plans that covers how the organization will continue to operate in the event of natural disasters, vandalism, or system failures.

Encryption:

The process of using one or more pieces of secret information to convert data into a secure, encrypted form where it is unusable except by those with access to the appropriate secrets. The opposite of decryption.

Entity:

Any type of organization or business, including practitioners in private practice.

Egress Filtering:

Filtering outbound traffic.

Electronic media:

(1) Electronic storage media including memory devices in computers (hard drives ) and any removable/transportable digital memory medium, such as magnetic tape or disk, optical disk, or digital memory card; or

(2) Transmission media used to exchange information already in electronic storage media. Transmission media include, for example, the Internet (wide- open ), extranet (using internet technology to link a business with information accessible only to collaborating parties), leased lines, dial-up lines, private networks, and the physical movement of removable/transportable electronic storage media. Certain transmissions, including of paper, via facsimile , and of voice, via telephone, are not considered to be transmissions via electronic media, because the information being exchanged did not exist in electronic form before the transmission. [45 C.F.R. § 160.103].

Encapsulation:

The inclusion of one data structure within another structure so that the first data structure is hidden for the time being.

Encryption:

The use of an algorithmic process to transform data into a form in which there is a low probability of assigning meaning without use of a confidential process or key. [45 C.F.R. § 164.304].

Ethernet:

The most widely-installed LAN technology. Specified in a standard, IEEE 802.3, an Ethernet LAN typically uses coaxial cable or special grades of twisted pair wires. Devices are connected to the cable and compete for access using an SMA/CD protocol.

Exposure:

A threat action whereby sensitive data is directly released to an unauthorized entity.