HHS Issues New Optional Performance Targets to Strengthen Cybersecurity in Health Sector and Portal for Cybersecurity Resources
Hey there my healthcare and cybersecurity enthusiasts! How’s the world turning at your end? Have you heard the recent chatter from across the pond about our friends at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services doing their bit for our digitally connected health services? They’ve cooked up a brilliant strategy I reckon is worth a butchers!
Just think of it, you know how the cyber world can be a bit like the Wild West, right? Everyone has a task to keep their side of the street clean. Well, these chaps over at HHS, they unveiled something akin to cyber street sweeper—a set of cybersecurity performance goals, tailored explicitly for healthcare and public health organisations. Now, they don’t have the bobbies twisting arms to enforce it. It’s completely voluntary, but it’s them doing their part to help our digitally reliant health systems to weather cyber storms and boost resilience.
What I admire here, mates, is that they’ve not just given a catch-all solution. They’ve divided these performance goals into a ‘must-do’ and ‘nice-to-have’ type of deal—the essentials and the enhanced. Simple, eh?
The essentials, well, they’re what you might call the barebones—key principles, basic security measures, and that sort of thing. Then you have the enhanced ones. These are more advanced practices, you know, the ones that will really make your organisation flash as far as cybersecurity goes.
I also got a peek at how these goals were designed and shaped. They’re based on industry frameworks that have been proven effective plus strategies drawn from multiple sources, everything from Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices to the National Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan.
Undoubtedly, this is an excellent opportunity for the entire health sector in staving off cyberattacks. They’re going a step beyond just tackling these cyber threats. It’s about building a health sector that can remain upbeat even when the cyber winds blow wild.
Bottom line, mates. Each organisation’s technology environment has its unique crinkles, knooks, and crannies, it’s own weaknesses and unique digital tapestry. What these guidelines provide is layered protection—like cheese in a sandwich—that ensures threats are stopped at every level. So, if one line of defence is breached, not to worry. There’s another one waiting to stop the threats in their tracks.
Before I dash off, I’ll let you in on a rather fun fact from their Landscape Analysis report. Apparently, 80 per cent of these attacks are identity-based. That’s right, love! Cyber attackers pretending to be ordinary Joes to gain access. Talk about digital Pantomime villains; our cyber-heroes never have it easy, do they?
So, that’s all folks! I think this news calls for a cuppa and some pondering over our own practices. Maybe it’s time to up our own game in the fight against those digital marauders.
Keep it real and stay safe in the cyber wilderness, my friends!
by Parker Bytes