HHS awards $350,000 to bolster cybersecurity in healthcare
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will ante $350,000 toward a better system of information sharing about cyber threats across healthcare.
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology will give funding to the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, NH-ISAC. HHS' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response awarded a cooperative agreement to NH-ISAC to help build the infrastructure necessary to disseminate cyber threat information securely to healthcare partners.
The agreements will help build the capacity of NH-ISAC to receive cyber threat information from member healthcare entities. Intelligence about system breaches and ransomware attacks will be relayed to stakeholders, along with advice about protecting health IT systems from cyber attacks.
[Also: ONC to fund cyberthreat intelligence sharing]
While some healthcare organizations have the resources to contract with information sharing and analysis organizations to keep them updated about cyber incidents, smaller providers usually don't. The hope is that, through a more streamlined cyber threat information sharing process, HHS can share cyber threat information with a single entity that will in turn share that information widely.
"These agreements mark a critical first step toward addressing the growing threat cybersecurity poses to the health care and public health sector," said Nicole Lurie, MD, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, in a statement. "Creating a more robust exchange about cybersecurity threats will help the industry prevent, detect and respond to these threats and better protect patients' privacy and personally identifiable information."
"This funding will help healthcare organizations of all sizes more easily and effectively share information about cyber threats and responses in order to protect their data and the health of their patients," added Vindell Washington, MD, national coordinator for health information technology.
Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
