Valued Voice

Health Care Emergency Readiness Planning: Updated Cybersecurity Framework Implementation Guide Now Available

Note - as part of its role in facilitating the exchange of information between health care partners, WHA is running a series of articles highlighting the emergency planning resources available on asprtracie.hhs.gov.

An updated cybersecurity framework implementation guide is now available at asprtracie.gov. The guide was updated in March, 2023.

According to the guide, hospitals have been increasingly targeted by more and more sophisticated cyberattacks that attempt to cripple business operations primarily over threats of exposing sensitive health data and damaging a hospital’s reputation in the process.

The guide aims to help hospitals consider comprehensive cybersecurity frameworks to adopt to protect against cyberattacks. It also provides an overview of recent federal mandates and acts of Congress hospitals must consider or comply with. The goal of the guide is to help improve hospital preparedness for overall cybersecurity awareness, as well as develop goals, assess practices, and identify gaps for remediation.

In addition to this resource, the American Hospital Association (AHA)s offering a webinar entitled: Examining U.S. Hospitals Cyber Preparedness on July 25 at noon (CST).  The webinar will include a panel moderated by John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk, who will discuss findings from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Hospital Cyber Resiliency Initiative Landscape Analysis report. Speakers will evaluate the current cyberthreats faced by hospitals and the entire health care and public health sector. AHA Members can register at this link.