By Adam Turteltaub

At the center of managing cyber risk in healthcare sits the Health Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity Working Group (LinkedIn). In this podcast, Executive Director Greg Garcia explains that healthcare has been designated as a part of the critical infrastructure, and the council has as its mission to: “identify systemic cybersecurity threats to critical healthcare infrastructure; collaborate on guidance and policies for mitigating those risks; and promote threat preparedness and incident response awareness and activities.”

It’s a needed mission. The number of data breaches have soared, and ransomware has emerged as a top threat, crippling the ability of healthcare providers to care for patients.

The Council recently released its Health Industry Cybersecurity – Strategic Plan. A five-year plan, it identifies trends, goals and objectives for securing healthcare technology infrastructure.

One key goal, in the words of the plan, recognizes that, “A trusted healthcare delivery ecosystem is sustained with active partnership and representation between critical and significant technology partners and suppliers, including non-traditional health and life science entities”  It sets four objectives under that goal:

Simplify access to resources and implementation approaches related to the adoption of controls and practices aligned with regulatory and sector standards for securing devices, services, and data

Increase new partnerships with public/private entities on the front edge of evaluating and responding to emerging technology issues to enable safe, secure, and faster adoption of emerging technologies

Enhance health sector senior leadership and board knowledge of cybersecurity and their accountability to create a culture of security within their organizations

Develop meaningful cross-sector third-party risk management strategies for evaluating, monitoring, and responding to supply chain and third-party provider cybersecurity risks

Listen in to learn more about the document, the council and how the healthcare sector is working together to stem cyberthreats.