Our latest poll over on LinkedIn explored our readers’ views around cyber security priorities in healthcare, namely: what action is most needed in health and care cyber security in the short term?
Four possible answers were supplied – to enforce cyber standards, audit IT suppliers, focus on staff education, or provide central funding and support.
The poll resulted in a tie; the need for staff education and central funding and support were both highlighted by participants, with 36 percent of the vote each.
On the need to focus on staff education, votes came in from roles such as deputy chief nurse, partnerships manager and clinical director for IT. Voting for more central funding and support, meanwhile, were roles such as NHS trust executive director, associate director of digital transformation and financial accountant.
Third and fourth place were also relatively close, with 15 percent of the vote going to ‘audit IT suppliers’ and 13 percent to ‘enforce cyber standards’. For auditing suppliers we saw voters such as deputy director of operations and digital technical manager, whilst votes for enforcing standards came from roles including chief information officer and physician.
Which would you have voted for? Don’t forget to follow HTN on LinkedIn here for the chance to share your views in future polls, along with keeping up with news, insights and interviews in the health tech space.
Cyber security in focus
HTN shared guidance from NHS England on network segmentation here, designed for healthcare staff members responsible for the architecture, design, implementation and maintenance of organisation’s network security, and sharing oversight of how network segmentation can prevent or mitigate lateral movement across a network in the event of a cyber attack.
Last week we highlighted how Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria has opened an early engagement opportunity for a gamified scenario based cyber security exercise, designed to enhance preparedness for cyber events amongst senior leaders in health and social care.
At the end of June, NHS England published an opportunity worth an estimated £4.2 million for services to support a cyber security focused programme and assurance model, as part of efforts to appoint a call-off contract with one provider.
We also recently explored a recent national data guardian panel, in which updates to the data security and protection toolkit (DSPT) and cyber assessment framework were discussed; click here to read more.
On cyber attacks in healthcare and their impacts, we reported on an update from NHS Dumfries & Galloway here and on June’s attack against a number of NHS organisations in London here, along with the latest update on the London attack published today.
HTN spoke with Jas Purewal, cyber consultant at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, to hear about how the trust partnered with partnered with cyber security specialist Cynerio to introduce its healthcare cyber security platform, to provide visibility, meet DSPT targets and other requirements, and support network segmentation.
Interested in reading more about cyber security in health tech? Check our our interview with Peter Kelly, Cynerio’s global head of customer success, thoughts on network segmentation, how Cynerio can support organisations in this space, and his view on what success in this space looks like.
