HSCC issues guide to promote cyber secure medical devices, health IT

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) today released a consensus-based guide to developing, deploying and supporting cyber-secure medical devices and health information technology across the product lifecycle and improving information sharing between manufacturers and health care organizations. A public-private partnership of health care companies and providers developing collaborative solutions to mitigate threats to critical health care infrastructure, HSCC developed the Medical Device and Health IT Joint Security Plan in response to 2017 recommendations by the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force. “The goal of this effort was to align cybersecurity priorities and processes between medical device manufactures and health care providers to lower the cybersecurity risk in medical devices,” said Kevin McDonald, co-chair of the initiative and director of clinical information security at Mayo Clinic. “By creating this alignment we can strengthen the security of medical technology against cyber threats, improve cyber risk management within health care organizations, and better protect patient safety.” Feedback on the plan, which will be updated as needed to adapt to the changing threat environment, may be emailed to JSPFeedback@HealthSectorCouncil.org.