HHS
will fund an organization for cybersecurity professionals to exchange
information about threats to the healthcare industry's information technology
systems.
The
goal is to allow healthcare and public health sectors and HHS to share
information “about cyberthreats and provide outreach and education that
improves cybersecurity awareness,” according to a statement accompanying an HHS
request for grant applicants on a federal website. By exchanging information,
the statement said, providers and public health agencies will be better
equipped to respond to cyberthreats.
The
funding level anticipated, $250,000 the first year, with the possibility of an
extension to cover a five-year period, is not expected to be sufficient to run
the center absent outside financial support.
The
money is to come from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology at HHS and the department's office of the assistant
secretary for preparedness and response.
“This
coordinated resource will focus on sharing the most up-to-date threat
information across the health and public health sectors and will better equip
health systems to identify potential threats and further protect electronic
health information,” said ONC chief Dr. Karen DeSalvo.
More
than eight in 10 respondents (81%) to a recent Modern Healthcare survey of
healthcare executives on information technology issues indicated they expect
there will be more cybersecurity attacks in 2016 than there were last year,
which was the worse since public records of healthcare data breaches have been
kept starting in 2009.
A
recent analysis of healthcare breach data on the “wall of shame” kept by the
Office for Civil Rights at HHS determined that since September 2009, Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-covered entities have reported
1,560 medical-record breaches that exposed the records of 500 or more
individuals. These breaches compromised the records of 158.3 million
individuals. Only about 12% of those breaches involved hacking, but those that
did exposed more than 111 million records, federal data show.
