October 30th – After a series of devastating healthcare-related breaches across the past few months, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has released a new set of resources intended to help professionals in the healthcare space improve their organization’s security posture.
This year to-date, CISA has been forced to notify more than 65 U.S. healthcare organizations of early-stage ransomware activity on networks, explains CISA deputy director, Nitin Natarajan. In speaking about the new toolkit, he reinforced the fact that adversaries commonly perceive healthcare organizations as relatively easy targets.
New toolkit
The new toolkit is intended as a resource for organizations of all sizes. It addresses cyber hygiene, provides tools that can help build strong security foundations, offers resources to help organizations strengthen defenses, and offers guidelines around staying ahead of the continually evolving threat landscape.
“The toolkit is designed for healthcare and public health organizations at every level of capability,” said HHS in a statement. The toolkit also provides links to the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council resources and connects users to the HPH Sector Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide by HHS, along with other resources.
More information
Shortly after releasing the toolkit, the CISA and the HHS co-hosted a round-table discussion pertaining to the cyber security challenges that healthcare groups in the U.S. face. For more on this story, click here.
For additional healthcare and cyber security insights, please see CyberTalk.org’s past coverage. Lastly, to receive timely cyber security insights and cutting-edge analyses, please sign up for the cybertalk.org newsletter.