HHS Invests Funds to Back Cyber Info Sharing Efforts

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $350,000 in cooperative agreements to help private and public healthcare sector partners address cybersecurity threats and develop an information sharing ecosystem.

HHS said Tuesday its Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology awarded a competitive agreement to the Ormond Beach, Florida-based National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center to aid cyber information and education exchanges for stakeholders.

NH-ISAC also received a cooperative agreement from HHS’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response to support the development of infrastructure for use to disseminate cyber threat information among healthcare partners.

Nicole Lurie, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said the agreements help efforts to address cybersecurity threats to the health care and public health sector.

“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,” added Lurie.

HHS will send cyber threat information to a single entity through a streamlined cyber threat information sharing process that will disseminate information to support stakeholders and help health care providers take action.

The department estimates cyber breaches today cost an average of $3.8 million per attack.