HHS has awarded cooperative agreements totaling $350,000 to help healthcare and public health partners respond to cybersecurity threats. The funding will be used is to develop a more vibrant cyber information ecosystem.
The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for HIT www.healthit.gov awarded funding to the National health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (NH-ISAC) www.nhisac.org in Florida to provide cybersecurity information and education on cyber threats to the healthcare sector.
Also, the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) www.phe.gov awarded funding to NH-ISAC to help build the infrastructure necessary to disseminate cyber threat information securely to healthcare partners.
According to a study by the Ponemon Institute www.ponemon.org, security breaches and ransomware attacks on the healthcare system have been on the rise in recent years along with the average cost associated with these attacks. Today, the cost of cybersecurity breaches averages $3.8 million per attack but small healthcare entities do not always have the financial resources sources to deal with the attacks.
A streamlined cyber threat information sharing process would enable HHS to send cyber threat information to a single entity and at that point, the information would be shared with the full range of stakeholders.
The agreements will also help build the capacity of NH-ISAC to receive cyber threat information from member healthcare entities which contain information on any system breaches and ransomware attacks. Threats will be relayed through a robust cyber information sharing environment and provide the steps that need to be taken to protect health information systems.