
The MHA’s newest Endorsed Business Partner, CyberForce|Q, offers a new approach to cybersecurity for healthcare organizations. CEO Eric Eder described a situation where a rural healthcare system’s CEO shared his organization’s experience from a cybersecurity breach. It involved a ransomware attack that took the hospital offline for two weeks and was still being restored five months later.
The CEO indicated that the organization’s last cybersecurity assessment was performed three years prior and many of the findings were either forgotten or no longer relevant. Its already overwhelmed IT staff struggled to act on findings from seven different assessments performed by five different consultants. Many organizations face similar issues, but CyberForce|Q offers an approach that has proved more effective and more efficient than traditional assessments.
The first step in this approach is to advance from relying upon infrequent and disparate cybersecurity assessments to a continuous assessment model. This model still informs specific controls, but it is also workflow integrated, updated in nearly real time with objective metrics and realigns tactics with strategy every month. The model allows healthcare participants to share benchmark data and best practices.
Created by healthcare for healthcare, the Healthcare Security Operations Center (HSOC) provides collective cybersecurity defense for healthcare 24/7/365. Being part of a collective defense has proved to prevent breaches from happening in the first place. The idea for the HSOC is rooted in trusted sharing established by hospital associations where members can work on solving industry problems together, sharing tactical ideas and best practices to protect all hospitals within the HSOC environment. This continuous and collective approach could benefit Michigan healthcare organizations as they seek efficiency and effectiveness from their cybersecurity technology investments.
CyberForce|Q is offering a virtual event from 10 to 11 a.m. EDT July 14 as part of its Coffee and Collaboration series, where MHA CEO Brian Peters will discuss ways to speak to those in the healthcare C-suite about cybersecurity and will provide insights into emerging issues confronting the healthcare field. The session is free of charge, but registration is required to receive connection information.
For more information on the MHA Endorsed Business Partner program, contact Rob Wood at the MHA.