EvidenceSheet
HIPAA Security Rule · Administrative

164.308(a)(7)(ii)(A) Data Backup Plan (Required)

Establish procedures to create and maintain retrievable exact copies of ePHI. NIST recommends offline or immutable backups, encryption, and regular restoration testing.

Source: HIPAA Security Rule, 164.308(a)(7)(ii)(A). The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open HIPAA Security Rule in the compliance library.

Applies to covered entities and business associates. An addressable specification can be met by a documented, reasonable alternative.

4
artefacts
2
held by a system
1
at each review
easy
to go live
Backup / DR tooling
where the evidence lives
teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

  • Backup completion logs · Backup / DR tooling
  • Immutable or offline backup evidence · Backup / DR tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Restoration test results · Backup / DR tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Backup policy and schedule · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Backup / DR tooling. Backup job success history and restore-test logs from the backup platform.

Common gaps auditors find

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

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164.308(a)(7)(i) Contingency Plan (Standard) · 164.308(a)(7)(ii)(B) Disaster Recovery Plan (Required)