The Department of Health and Human Services has entered into a cooperative agreement to bolster its cybersecurity by building a threat sharing infrastructure for health IT stakeholders.
The Oct. 4 agreement awards $350,000 in funding to the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center — a Florida-based healthcare data sharing center — to build the infrastructure for stakeholders to share cybersecurity information and education.
HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response awarded the cooperative agreements with the goal of having NH-ISAC help build a secure cybersecurity threat-sharing environment.
"The security of electronic health information is foundational to our increasingly digitized health system," said Dr. Vindell Washington, national coordinator for health information technology, in a statement.
"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."
ONC has been actively trying to promote the practice of threat information sharing, where industry stakeholders exchange information to help thwart potential cybersecurity threats, as ransomware and IT system breaches are on the rise.
HHS officials said the agreement provides the agency with an infrastructure to send cybersecurity threat information to a single source to disseminate multiple healthcare stakeholders while allowing them to quickly relay information about cyberattacks.
"These agreements mark a critical first step toward addressing the growing threat cybersecurity poses to the health care and public health sector," said Dr. Nicole Lurie, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
"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."
ONC is also promoting broader adoption of electronic health records and information sharing through health IT systems. Part of that strategy includes greater cooperation to prevent cyber intrusions into health records.
