Brown Smith Wallace Becomes First St. Louis Company to Achieve HITRUST CSF Assessor Designation

Brown Smith Wallace, a full-service CPA and business advisory firm based in St. Louis, has been designated by HITRUST® as an approved HITRUST CSF Assessor.

The HITRUST Alliance is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to champion programs that safeguard sensitive information and manage information risk for organizations across all industries and throughout the third-party supply chain.

With this achievement, Brown Smith Wallace is now the first St. Louis-based firm approved to provide services using the HITRUST CSF, the most widely-adopted security framework in the U.S. health care industry.

The HITRUST CSF is a comprehensive privacy and security framework that addresses the multitude of security, privacy and regulatory challenges facing organizations to comply with health care (HIPAA, HITECH), third-party (PCI, COBIT), government (NIST, FTC) and other industry-specific regulations and standards.

HITRUST CSF Assessors are critical in helping uphold information security and privacy standards for industries of varying size and complexity and are a core component of the HITRUST CSF program. They provide trained resources to assess compliance with security control requirements and document corrective action plans that align with the HITRUST CSF. Assessors such as Brown Smith Wallace serve as a key component of the program by providing assessment and remediation services to all industries that deal with Protected Health Information or Personally Identifiable Information (PHI or PII).

“We are thrilled to receive this designation, and to be able to work with our clients to help ensure their information risk management protocols are compliant with legal requirements, but also represent industry best practices,” said Ted Flom, Partner in Charge of Advisory Services at Brown Smith Wallace. “Our clients’ security needs are ever-evolving, and this designation shows that we are equipped with the training and expertise required to manage those needs.”

“We are pleased to have Brown Smith Wallace as a HITRUST CSF Assessor to help organizations with the process of adopting and utilizing the HITRUST CSF requirements. This designation will give their clients confidence that their information is protected,” said Ken Vander Wal, Chief Compliance Officer, HITRUST. “The firm has a long-standing, exemplary reputation offering IT privacy and security solutions to organizations. Their expertise and the leadership they’ve exhibited over the years make it a perfect addition to our program.”